Announcements
Navigation Systems
by Bruce Hildebrandt
I used to HATE driving in Vancouver. Coming from a small prairie town, and learning to drive in a small city didn’t prepare me for trips through the maze of congested and ofttimes narrow streets of Vancouver.
Last summer, I received a GPS system for my birthday. Suddenly my world changed. I now had a navigator (or, NAGivator as I sometimes like to call it.) Trips to Vancouver were no longer intimdating and “dangerous.”
A friend of mine said this week, “As much as I’d like to, I cannot stop my girls from dating. However, I CAN teach my girls how to navigate boys.”
Isn’t our role as parents and teachers to not only teach the curriculum, but even moreso to teach our children how to navigate? We all need to know how to navigate relationships, how to navigate different worldviews, how to navigate the Bible, money, work, winning, losing, emotions, LIFE.
I would encourage you to take the time to be intentional in teaching these things. Be alert for those teachable moments and don’t be afraid of taking the time needed to address and explore them.
When I was in the classroom as a Christian School teacher, parents would ask me if I taught about topics that kids brought up like Halloween, witches, ghosts, etc. My response was this question. “Is it better that they learn about these things in a Christian classroom under the direction of a mature commited follower of Jesus, or learn about these things in the basement at a 10 year-old friend’s house?” It’s all about teaching our children how to Biblically navigate life.
Just like my friend can’t stop his girls from dating, we cannot stop our children from being in the world, but we can certainly can teach them how to navigate the world!