At one time we talked about protecting our children from the dangers of the world. We saw “sheltering” as a word to be treasured in its proper context; a synonym for protection. I understand certain exposure is inevitable, but have we sped up the process? Some parents overreacted to the concept and opened the gates to their children and at the earliest stages, they were exposed to big ideas and innuendos on sexuality. Such parents while fleeing the excessive protection of their own parents–perhaps–took it even a step further and allowed technology to rule the daily routine of children (think under 12). The nine-year-old girl with an iPod and Instagram account is just a common feature of modern evangelical parenting. Well, these children have grown and as teenagers, they now have knowledge of things too deep for them to handle, too nuanced for them to parse and too intimate for them to carefully apply. The warning here is to be cautious not to overreact. Let children be children. God shelters us and gives us what we can handle (Milk, then Meat). Just as biblical history grows into wisdom, let’s raise our children into wisdom first before we expose them to the world in the name of “advancement,” “coolness” or “worldview training.”
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