I’ve changed my mind. The topic I originally wanted to discuss, I am now feeling like I don’t want to go there with this blog. Instead, I thought I would go through some more of Voddie’s statements about things that can rival God for our affections.

Before he mentions sports in the chapter, he points out the danger of prioritizing our children’s intellectual education over their spiritual education. In a post earlier, I quoted Baucham as saying that many times “we trade in the biblical standard for a cultural norm” (p.18). Here’s what he says next:

The result is a generation about whom Christian Smith has written, “Religion seems to become rather compartmentalized and backgrounded in the lives and experiences of most U.S. teenagers.” [Christian Smith, Soul Searching] This…is completely understandable in light of the minimal weight given to spiritual matters. Smith explains:

This is not surprising. It simply reflects the fact that there is very little built-in religious content or connection in the structure of most U.S. adolescent’s daily schedules or routines. Most U.S. teenagers’ lives are dominated by school and homework.

~Voddie Baucham, Family Driven Faith

Please excuse the quotes within a quote; I found these lines too important not to share in their entirety. One of the biggest struggles in an individual’s spiritual life is putting the Lord first every day and making time to fellowship with Him; I can’t help but think that today’s Christian families, being a group of many individuals, would have the same trouble being consistent in their devotion to God. It gets “backgrounded” to Sundays and the occasional Wednesday, if there isn’t anything else going on. Not only that, but we have our culture conditioning us to think we are nothing without “a good education”. I take full responsibility for my actions, but cannot ignore the influence my culture has had on my decisions in life, and now guiding my children in life. Oh, how I long to be free of society’s chains- it can happen if I make God’s word and will a priority over my faulty worldview.