In Proverbs twenty-nine twenty five we find words that speak volumes of truth which we need to hear in our social media-saturated world. “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” All of us struggle at times with making a good impression while wondering what other people think about us. This, according to Proverbs, is a snare, as it can become an obsession, trapping us into the vicious and spiritually deadly whirlpool of making every effort to seek man’s approval, rather than living to the glory of God. Tim Keller says that “if we look to human beings more than to God for our worth and value, we will be trapped by anxiety, an over-need to please, by the inability to withdraw from exploitive relationships, by the inability to take criticism, and by a cowardice that makes us unable to confront others.” As Christians, we must push back on our bent towards fear of man, as we learn to live to God’s glory alone. And, we need to lead our kids to do the same.

I recently heard a theologian say that he has stopped trying to discern whether people he meets and knows are believers by asking them, “Are you saved?” Instead, he asks them this question: “Is Christ living in you?” He explained this switch by saying that many people today look back on a particular church service or camp experience where they raised their hand or went forward at the invitation to commit their lives to Christ. Sadly, while they no longer pursue a relationship with Christ, they believe that they are indeed Christians. Rather than falling on the good soil we read about in the Parable of the Sower, these are seeds that have fallen on the stony soil where the initial joy fades quickly and withers under pressure. This distinction should drive us to nurture our kids into understanding that the Christian life is not captured in a momentary decision, but is marked by a life of sanctification, where every square inch of their lives is lived with gratitude to the glory of God!

If you are thinking about helping your kids navigate the world of Artificial Intelligence in regards to research and gathering information, I want to read you some helpful words from professor, Dr. Thomas Fowler in a recent edition of Touchstone Magazine. “Do the chatbots add any value with their search capability? Basically, no; the behavior of chatbots is completely at variance with the methods of research done by a real person, who finds sources and then critically filters and analyzes them, seeking to extract the most important and best-justified conclusions in light of the subject and of reality. This process we call “truth seeking,” but it is not what AI does: It does not decide what is true and what is not. AI systems are “built to be persuasive, not truthful,” says an internal Microsoft document. We need to lead our kids away from sources that lie. Parents, teach your kids how to engage in the process of using the Bible as the basis for developing skills in wisdom and discernment.