What are we teaching our children?

"All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children" (Isa. 54:13).

In our official membership statistics, we do not count children, but they are of crucial importance to us, and they have enormous value in God's eyes. They can play a significant role in God's mission to His lost world. So, the church has assumed the task of teaching the children the things of the Lord, through Christian homes, schools, Sabbath Schools, and Pathfinder clubs.

What should the church teach? And how will that teaching bring our children peace? Isaiah gives us three challenges.

What do we teach our children?

Whatever we teach our children, Isaiah says, should bring them God's peace. Peace is often associated with freedom, and freedom has often been compared to flying. For centuries human beings tried to free themselves from the limitation of being created without wings. About a thousand years ago, an English monk, Eilmer of Malmesbury, made one of the first-known attempts to fly. He fastened wings to his hands and feet and jumped from a tower. He managed to fly more than 250 yards, but his landing was less than successful.

Since then many attempts have been made to fly. Humans had curiosity, vision, and courage. However, that was not sufficient to ensure success in their enterprise. Their problem was their limited knowledge. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did humans begin to master the art of gliding on the wind, and out of that came new knowledge concerning the laws of aerodynamics.

The history of human attempts to fly teaches us something about wanting to succeed in life. How can we experience life with a sense of freedom and authenticity? It is not enough to have curiosity, dreams, and courage. It is not enough merely to be gifted, to take an interest, to have imagination, to work hard, or to have creativity and power to act. To succeed one must be equipped with an adequate knowledge of life, of who we are, and why we are here. This applies to what we teach our children.

Ellen White says: "In a knowledge of God all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue, with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate."²

The knowledge we teach our children must grow from communion with God. Knowledge of God grants freedom and peace, because God stretches the capacity of our minds beyond anything we can think or imagine. Concerning freedom, Jesus said: "'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free'" (John 8:31, 32, NIV). Here Jesus is referring to God when He says "truth." Children's lives are formed by their knowledge of God. They find it in Jesus under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, our ultimate objective must be more than giving the children a great time, as if our goal were to entertain them, or of giving them information, as if it could save them. Our ultimate objective is to make them disciples of Christ, able to understand and know God who sets us free and enables us to fly in the spiritual heavens.

Sometimes, what we offer our children in church is a distorted image of God that cripples them rather than making them free; that keeps them paralyzed rather then helping them fly; that keeps them filled with anger, guilt, and fear, rather than with peace.

I can remember my childhood in the church. Devoted and pious men and women taught me how to behave. Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories reinforced their teaching. To strength en their position, they taught me about the Great Judge, the God who was always watching me to see whether I did anything wrong. I was taught to sing a song about being careful what I did, because the Father up above was looking down at me. The song had several verses, and every verse introduced another part of me which I had to be careful with: eyes, mouth, ears, hands, and feet. The meaning of life was to behave well, and God was the Chief of police.

This kind of teaching gave me a guilty conscience and no peace. It enslaved me and deprived me of my freedom and dignity. It reluctantly urged me to fly, but only with a head so full of vague instructions and fear that the flight often ended in failure. I was taught that God was one who made life harder than it was by itself. I didn't learn always to see God as my friend and helper to deal with the challenges of life. I was not "taught by the Lord" but by weak human beings who struggled to produce in me a legalistically perfect behavior. To them, lifestyle was more important than life.

And the outcome was that I did not experience the church as a good place for me to be. Fortunately, I had a home where I was loved unconditionally. And God was patient with me. But I did not always get from the church the "great peace" God had promised.

We must teach our children to experience God Himself, not just dry theory about Him. They must be able to love and trust God, having a relationship with Him they can always come back to. He is the Father who is always waiting for their return, even if they have lost their heritage, status, and friends. Even if they have been prodigals in a foreign land for years, He is the God who waits for them and embraces them when they return.

We cannot teach that unless we have experienced it ourselves. Unless we come to Jesus ourselves as sinners totally dependent on God, our children will not see that it is possible to fail at times and still make it through by His grace. If our children do not see this dependent relationship in us, no matter how costly and beautiful our teaching material, we will not give them the truth. And they will not be set free. And they will not find peace.

What are our expected teaching outcomes?

When the Bible lifts the curtain on the created world, as God wanted it to be, we behold balance and harmony, a world at peace. In fact, God's purpose in designing our world was to share the peace that existed in His own mind. Therefore, God's peace embodies life's innermost meaning and can be seen everywhere in His created world.

The Bible also teaches that God's peace must continually be defended against destructive forces. Therefore, God is always at work. In an ongoing struggle He seeks to restore His peace in the lives of men.

To believers in the Bible, therefore, the darkness of the night, the unfruitful desert, and the roaring waves of the sea are constant reminders of two opposite powers: the threat from the power of the destroyer, the chaos of evil, and God's mighty and sustaining power and the peace of God.

All that is positive flows from the God of life. Although, nothing is to be taken for granted. Having daily bread on our tables is a source of deep joy and humble gratitude, because it is a sign of God's peace that prevails over darkness. When we teach the children this dynamic view of life, we give them tools to live. This knowledge enables them to appreciate God's peace when anything good is coming to them, and to struggle against evil and darkness.

It is an alarming signal that suicides among children are growing all over the world. In Sweden, some years ago, two children committed suicide every week. In Denmark, suicide caused ten percent of all deaths among boys between 10 and 19 years of age. The reason is lack of good relations with their parents and the lack of clear ethical principles based on the peace of God. Most important is the fact that many children felt superfluous, that they were not needed, and that they grew up with parents who had no time for them. Many of these children seek consolation in drugs and alcohol. The next step is death.

In the midst of all this turmoil and human suffering, there stands the church. It says: We are an instrument for God's peace in the world. We oppose the destructive forces at work around us. This must mean at least two things:

First, we lead our children into a life of service as coworkers with the Creator and Sustainer of other human beings. Second, we do not focus our teaching only on our children; an inward-looking approach to teaching children will breed an inward-looking church. The most important but forgotten doctrine in the church is that lost people matter to God and, therefore, to us. How vital is our work for all children, planting in them a fundamental com passion and love for other people."Love one another even as I have loved you," commanded Jesus.

How do we teach our children?

Our text states: "All your children will be taught by the Lord." It means that someone has to be the spokesperson for the Lord to our children. Children learn by observing their adult examples.

Serving the children means that we model servanthood for them. Instead of an emphasis on right behavior, often static and measured by rules, we can teach our children the joy of service. There is no better way than by demonstrating it to them as we serve them.

I had wonderful examples of Christian servants in my childhood. I remember an unmarried, middle-aged woman who spent Saturday evenings and Sundays instilling in us children and youth a love for the church. She arranged for us to play games and stood there, very happy when we enjoyed ourselves. She did everything to make us feel part of the church family. She was a great example of Christian service. And no story, no reading, no theory, could take the place of her living example.

Jesus gave us an example of the true spirit of Christian service. He entered the suffering world and carried all human weakness and needs. He identified Himself with sinners, He suffered with them, and for them, to bring healing to their bodies and souls.

Just as with Israel in the time of Isaiah, our future depends on our children being "taught by the Lord." Our work with children needs a new foundation. The Lord must become the teacher, and when that happens, "great shall be the peace of our children."