Family Dinner | family prayer | Parenthood | Family Time
The New Evangelization is all the buzz. Savvy evangelizers pick the hippest of the ever-multiplying array of platforms, target their demographics, and employ slick production values.
Well, I’m jumping in the game.
Actually, the game jumped me, whether I willed it or not, about fifteen years ago when my first child was born.
As a parent, I am responsible for teaching the faith to my kids.
And as all parents are only too keenly aware these days, I can’t count on anyone else to do it, not in any school (private or public, religious or secular), church, sports program, youth group, or YouTube channel.
So it falls to us.
It’s our duty, and we can’t delegate it.
Luckily, I’ve got a platform: the kitchen table!
And I know my target demographic: by name!
As for production values, how about a home-cooked meal? Or a bowl of popcorn in the evening?
The most important thing is time and caring: giving our kids our engaged, active presence—and the patience to listen. It’s a confused world and our kids have lots of questions, which we’ll hear if we listen.
For a lot of those questions, I don’t have a ready answer. This presents an opportunity: we can look for answers together.
Our go-to starting point in the search for Truth is the Bible. The search has been great for me, too. The more time I spend with the Bible, the more I realize how amazing a gift it is.
It seems that more and more we live in a “post-Truth” society where too many in the public sphere, loudly and brazenly, as well as in the private sphere, are willing to abandon Truth in preference to their personal narrative.
News reports tell us of mental health problems among the young, particularly depression. Cell phones and the internet are commonly mentioned culprits, but I wonder what role the absence of Truth has? An absence of Truth can leave a sense of nothingness and uselessness.
The antidote is Truth. And that antidote has a name: Jesus. He said of Himself: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). A great place to get to know Him is in His own Word: the Bible.
As parents, we can try to make those introductions around the kitchen table.