by God to be revelation-receivers. Now, here's what this means: that they will never know all the things that they need to know to live properly by personal research and experience. They will never ever, by research and experience, understand the things they need to understand, to live appropriately. Wisdom is the result of God's revelation and so God has spoken to us in His word. I need this book in order to understand fundamental things that define the nature and purpose of life for me. And so what I want to do is I want to raise children who are in such awe of God that when I begin to get out God's book, they're already predisposed to listen to it because they're in awe of the God who is the author of the book. Parents, does that describe your children? You're in big trouble if you're pulling out this book, if you're referencing this book to your children and they have no awe of the God who wrote it because understanding this book and submitting to its wisdom is at the heart of being what you were created to be. Are your children in such awe of God that when you get out the book, they're ready to listen to it? There's a second thing that you need to know about your children. They were created by God to be interpreters. Parents, don't ever say to your children, "The problem with you is you don't think." Your children never stop thinking. They may think improperly, they may think foolishly, but you've given birth to interpreters. Let me give you a principle. You may want to get this down. Human beings made in the image of God do not live life based on the facts of their experience. Human beings made in the image of God do not live life based on the facts of their experience, but based on their interpretation of the facts. Human beings made in the image of God do not live life based on the facts of their experience, but rather on their interpretation of the facts. You've given birth to a little human being who is incessantly going to interpret the world around him, and your words and behavior are always the byproduct of the way you've interpreted the situation that you're in. You're always thinking things about you. You're always thinking things about others. You're always thinking things about God. You're always thinking things about the nature and purpose of life. Your children are philosophers. Your children are theologians. Your children are archaeologists who will dig through the mound of their existence and try to make sense out of life. If you pay attention, you can see that very young. Today, I drove into Atlanta and had lunch with my youngest son and his girlfriend. Darnay is 24 years old and he's a sports broadcaster. He's in Macon. And when Darnay was three years old, he knew that his daddy had a doctor in front of his name and he knew that I saw people for appointments. And he reasoned in his little mind that I must be a medical doctor. I'm not one of those. And he was, one day, out in our backyard, wandering around like three-year-olds do. You know three-year- olds live by the Columbus method: land and discover. And he wandered in front of his older brother, who had a broken rake handle and was hitting stones over the fence into the neighbor's yard. I always asked him to do that before I mowed. That's a joke for you overly serious people in the room. And Ethan took this great, big, mighty swing. Just as Darnay walked in front of him, he hit him full swing in the forehead, knocked him down to the ground. His head split open. He began to bleed profusely. Well, I knew something had happened because older sister was responding as the familial siren. She just started to scream. You know how you can hear the siren go by your house? It sounded like she was running laps around the yard because her voice would get distant and near. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." I ran to the backyard and Ethan, the perpetrator of crime, is now carrying his bleeding brother and he's pleading his legal case. "Dad, am I in my trouble? How much trouble am I in, Daddy?" I yell for him to put Darnay down on the floor. I call for paper towels. Nicole is now running laps around the kitchen screaming. Ethan now is plea-bargaining. "I'll never go in the backyard again. I'll never pick up a rake handle again. I'll never hit stones again. Daddy, how much trouble am I in?" Now I'm not a squeamish man, but this was a bloody scene. And I thought I may have to call that emergency number, 911, and I couldn't form that number in my brain. I had 999, 111, 919, 191. I had all the combinations except for 911.
Transcript: Session 2
GETTING TO THE HEART OF PARENTING
40
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