by Martin P. Simon / Editor, The Christian Parent and M y Chum
“W m N I’m big, I’ll find me a hide-out in the ’ * mountains and rob the rich guys,” said Jim. Before his shocked mother could answer, his brother Bill did. “ Not me, I’m going to be a medical missionary in Africa.” Next day their mother was telling her neighbor about it. “ Can you imagine that?” she exclaimed. “ In the same home and with the same training!” But was it the same home and the same training? Jim read comic books about the Mountain Bidge bandits, and just then they were his heroes. Bill loved the books in the Jungle Doctor series, which show the blessing a Christian doctor brought to the natives in Africa. “ The same home”— Jim on the sofa and Bill in the chair, yet they were in two different worlds with their books and their thinking. They were 5,000 miles apart, with different heroes, different ideals, growing into different personalities. Does it make a difference what children read? Indeed it does! Even one book or one issue of a magazine can change a life. Multiply that by all the hours people spend reading, and you have a tremendous influence. Good reading costs money, but so do shoes, orange juice, homes, cars, TV sets. Good reading is no side issue, unless a person’s thinking is a side issue. W e must learn to put out good money for Chris tian reading just as we do for clothes and food. A family budget starting with fifty cents a week for Christian reading is a conservative minimum. And there are ways of stretching that money. Give your children gifts at birthday time, Christmas and similar occasions. W hy not include Christian reading? Let their uncles, grandmas and other relatives know that Christian books and Chris tian magazines are welcome. Mention books and magazines as your favorites, too.
Children need Christian reading now . Their characters are forming now . Ten years later will be too late. Parents need Christian reading, too. They espe cially need advice on how to set up effective Christ- centered homes. They need spiritual help, informa tion about their own church groups, Bible study and Christian news. Christian reading can save the unsaved— it often has. Church members need Christian reading to en courage them in the work of Christ. Thousands of Christians have become interested in missionary work by reading about the work of missionaries, and this interest in missions has in turn drawn them closer to Christ. Christian reading material— and time for Chris tian reading — should be major considerations in every home. W e ought to watch the balance be tween such reading and TV viewing. Certainly, if more time is spent for seeing secular TV programs than for Christian TV and Christian reading to gether, something is badly wrong. You are what you eat. You enjoyed that ham burger, but at the same time eating it did something to you. It grew a part of a tooth or the muscle of your left leg or a hair on your eyebrow, or just helped replace worn out cells throughout your body. It became part of you even though you ate it because you were hungry, without thinking what it would do once it entered your body. So it is with Christian reading. Once it enters your mind it will become part of you.
You can easily see, then, how it is important for children especially to have much good reading and not the trash of the drug store pulps and comics. Take one further step and become aware that good reading is likewise important to you. The wise parent will not hesitate to spend for Christian reading for his home. He knows that it is an important investment — as important as his family and their future usefulness for Christ. O C T O B E R ----- P R O T E S T A N T P R E S S M O N T H
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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