Peter Witkowski Discipleship, Parenting

Don’t Baby Talk Jesus

Don't Baby Talk JesusSometimes I am not sure if I’m teaching my 4 month-old how to talk or if he’s teaching me how to make noises. Regardless, I love our time together. And as we communicate through giggles, cackles, and words, I find myself constantly putting ideas into his mouth. When he smiles, I smile back saying, “Does little man think Daddy is silly? Yes he does, doesn’t he?” And I am not alone. I think, pretty much every parent, grandparent, aunt, and uncle verbalizes their thoughts about their baby’s brain activity as if the adults’ notion was the kid’s reality. Such conversations are naturally titled “baby talk.” And while baby talk is appreciated by families everywhere, our spiritual conversations with our kids need to be baby talk free.

The Danger of Good Desires

My wife and I very much want to see our son embrace Jesus as his savior. We continually pray for his soul and introduce him to Bible stories, and our church. But when he becomes old enough to talk and think about abstract things, we will have to fight the temptation to use baby talk to coax him into a profession of faith.

Here is what I mean. We could talk to our little guy about the horrors of hell and then ask him, “Don’t you want to follow Jesus and have a happy life?;” or we could say, “Mommy ,Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma will be in heaven, don’t you want to go to heaven too?;” or we could have him repeat the sinners’ prayer after us. We could put all kinds of ideas and thoughts into our son’s head and then ask him to act.  Now, our little man might respond by getting scared and even saying a few words.  But, he will only have acted on our thoughts as they relate to his sinful desires. You don’t have to be super spiritual to realize that saying a quick prayer is a lot less troubling than an eternity in hell.

The Power Of Salvation

But for our son to embrace Christ, he must embrace Christ. It’s redundantly simple, but it is a huge truth. He must realize that he is a sinner; he must want to repent; and he must desire to set his mind on things above. His words only matter if they are expressing his heart and his love for Christ.

Think of the crowd at Pentecost, the Ethiopian Eunuch, or the man born blind in John 9 (Acts 2; 8). Yes, they all needed to hear the gospel explained before they believed. But once they knew the glory of the mystery of Christ, they eagerly repented and embraced Jesus. Without any coaxing or sinners’ prayers, these people boldly asked, “Brothers what shall we do” (Acts 2:37)? No one had to speak for these new believers to make sure they got saved.

A Baby Talk Free World

Today, our kids come to faith in the same way by responding to the Word of God in faith. As parents, we are called to expose our kids to the gospel by teaching the scriptures, by correcting our kids in love, and by repenting of our own sins. Let’s faithfully follow the example of the Christ, the apostles, and the early church and introduce our kids to the gospel! And then, let’s trust God to work.

And in our zeal to see our kids saved, we must leave behind the baby talk. We can’t manipulate our kids into salvation by projecting our ideas onto them. Instead, let’s ask open-ended questions, such as: “Do you love Jesus; does this make sense; do you sin; what do you think about heaven; and if lying is wrong what should you do?”  Then, let’s respond to their answers with truth, asking God to work!

Peter Witkowski Parenting

Teach Jesus. Use Football?

Football Blog PostCollege football is amazing. The sport has fanatical bands, big hits, and unfettered enthusiasm. Quite simply the sport is the perfect blend of World Cup craziness and rugged manliness.  As we watch the college season unfold, we will being watched by our kids. Good or bad, our interactions with our favorite teams have a spiritual element. Let’s seize the day and use football as a tool to teach our kids about Jesus.

Don’t Be A Loser

When our team wins only two games (like my Air force Falcons did in 2013,) is our Fall ruined? Or if our team captures the National Championship like Florida State did, is our year made? If the status of our team is our spiritual identity, the answer will be a yes. Now I do not think expressing happiness or sadness about the outcome of your team’s last game is wrong. I was pretty excited to watch Texas win the national title in 2008!  But living by the outcome of your team’s score is a problem. As Pastor Tim Keller rightfully warns,

sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things (168).

How do we know if the sport has become an ultimate thing in our life? College football is the ultimate thing if it determPeter At Notre Dameines our emotions and actions.  For example if we are short with our kids all week or extremely generous with our money because of how our quarterback played, we are teaching our kids that joy is found in a leather ball. Our football identity is melting off our t-shirts and into our hearts. This is a huge problem. As Pastor Tim Keller explains, “Identity apart from God is inherently unstable. Without God, our sense of worth may seem solid on the surface, but it never is – it can destroy you in a moment” (170-71).  Every team (even SEC teams) will lose eventually. And scandals hit even little schools like the Air Force Academy at some point. If we live for college football, we will be fragile, miserable people with really strong and yet very indefensible prejudices. And we will encourage our kids to create equally fragile lives founded upon stadiums, swag, and whatever other trinkets that promise happiness but deliver despair. If this is you, repent and make Jesus your identity!

Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes “Lord of your life,” whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally  (p179).

 

Make Jesus Your Soul’s Captain

But if we flip the field, college football will be a great teaching tool. In a very real way, we can use football to show the sufficiency and power of Christ. When our team gets blown out (…Air Force…), we can still have a great Saturday because Jesus is king. And when our team collects the umpteenth championship, we can be humble and happy, because we base our identity on Christ’s free gift of salvation.  As we flip between games on Saturday afternoon, let’s show our kids that every Saturday is a good day because we get to worship on Sunday. By teaching our kids that games are just that – games, we can point them to things above where Christ is!

Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Jer 9:24b

 

Get Back Up

If you are like me, you probably have had at least one sin fueled identity crisis during the college secfootball season. A little ways back, I dug my way under a friend’s skin by chanting, “Cry, Tebow Cry” after the former quarterback got slammed hard to the turf.  A few seconds later, I heard my Gator buddy say, “You need to leave my apartment, NOW!”  Ultimately our issue was not a battle between the SEC and the Big 12.  Our issue was a sin issue. I had missed the whole “love your neighbor as yourself and let you speech always be with grace (Matt. 22:36-40; Col 4:6)” We need to be gracious and loving even during sports.  Eventually, I had to repent of being rude and unkind with my words. When we sin during college football, let’s be quick to repent and return to our Jesus identity.

Its Ok Leave The Team

Lastly, we can’t forget that sin is always displeasing to God. Boasting about Notre Dame until it’s our identity is never excusable in God’s eyes. And if we can’t watch football without sinning against God and hurting our friends, let’s embrace the Frozen mantra and “Let it go!” It’s better to cut out an eye and miss a little football than for us and our kids to suffer from the deadly effects of sin (Matt 5:29).

Closing Thoughts

I truly think college football is fantastically entertaining! And I have me some swag: t-shirts, mini football helmets, and banners.  But it is just a sport, nothing more. Jesus is so much better. Will we embrace the Jesus identity this football season? Our kids are watching. More importantly God is watching!

 

Works Cited

Keller, T. (2008). The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York : Penguin .

 

Peter Witkowski Apologetics, Parenting

A Quick Word About Biblical Courage

Blog On Coourage PicCannon to the right of them
Cannon to the left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d.

 

Though I was by no means a fan of memorizing poetry or of anything that smelled of school as a kid, I did find the “Charge of The Light Brigade” to be fascinating account of courage. I dreamt of what it must have been like to be a British soldier charging into Russian cannon fire undaunted by the threat of death.  Ah, bravery!

Today, American society has transformed the idea of courage from an act of selflessness into an act of selfishness. From the content found on ESPN or in any other major news outlet, society appears to be saying that the most courageous thing a person can do is to publicly be yourself. Hence, the rookie football player, Michael Sam is a champion of courage because he expressed his sexuality irrespective of societal norms.

But this definition of courage is inherently flawed. Secular society by necessity has to place limits on self-expression. For example, people who openly express their personhood through various forms pedophilia receive jail time. Society puts limits on self-expression in an attempt to curb murder, bribery, fraud, and a host of other crimes. Admittedly, the definitions what is courageous self-love what is criminal changes generation to generation. In the 60’s, expressing one’s self through Christianity was acceptable and homosexuality was out. Today Christianity is out and homosexuality is in. But the fact remains: If everyone woke up one day and decided to ”courageously” express themselves without reservation as Michael Sam has done, western society would descend into never ending chaos.

Self-serving needs are not meant to be satisfied; they are meant to be put to death  – Ed Welch.

In an attempt to combat a world of self-serving courage, a growing number of Christians have stressed the need to return to the courage of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem. They teach kids that courage consists of shooting a thieving rabbit with a pellet rifle, scouting ahead for bears on the family hiking trip, or rubbing their hands in the  blood of their first kill. Such ideas of bravery often resonate with our minds. After all, I would have happily exchanged my school desk topped with a copy of the “Charge of the Light Brigade” for a charging stallion and a lance.

 Although created with good intention, this definition also ultimately fails Christendom. Instead of encouraging a humble dependence on Christ, adrenaline junkie courage causes us to trust in our own ability to successfully master a dangerous task. I’m brave because I killed a turkey or because I went alligator hunting and returned with all ten fingers. What have you done recently? Admittedly shooting a buck or scoring a touchdown is not inherently evil. But they act of riding off into enemy cannot fire is not inherently biblical courage.      

Biblical courage is about trusting Christ. According to Scripture, courage can be simply defined as: faithfully loving God and your neighbor regardless of the circumstances. This is what Jesus and the saints mentioned in the Bible did. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and spoke truth even when unpopular (John 9). He reached across racial lines to love his enemies by exposing their sexual sins in an attempt to give them living water (John 4:7-42). Instead of seeking their own self-interest, Peter and John healed the lame and spoke boldly for Christ; despite being physically threatened and eventually executed (Acts 4-5).  Biblical courage is lovingly speaking and living truth in a fallen world.  

Although faithfully following God  means some of us will need to take a stand like David and physically opposing those who mock God, most of us will display courage in the mundane setting of every day life: around the water cooler, in the dugout, or at our school desk. True courage is a child choosing to praise the winning team instead of complaining about the ref’s last call. Courage is refusing to lie when your boss tells you to. Courage is confessing Christ before your classmates when your teacher says all religions are equally true. Courage is turning off the big game to make your worn out wife and mother of two dinner. Courage is confessing your sin to those whom you’ve hurt. Courage is actively decreasing so that God may increase.

Despite my childhood love of cavalry charges, I don’t anticipate dying in a mounted sword fight. Nor will I be encouraging my son to leave for school with a lance tied around his shoulder. We can employ biblical courage whether we pursue baseball, oil painting, rock music, classical poetry, or the theatre. The truly courageous person loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind and his neighbor as himself in every situation (Luke 10:27).       

Works Cited

Welch, E. T. (1997). When People Are Big And God Is Small . Philipsburg: P&R Publishing.