Tedd Tripp on the inability of our hearts to be neutral…
“Since there is no such thing as a place of childhood neutrality, your children either worship God or idols. These idols are not small wooden or stone statuary. They are the subtle idols of the heart. The Bible describes such idols using terminology such as fear of man, evils desires, lusts, and pride. The idols include conformity to the world, embracing earthly mindsets, and ‘setting the affections on things below.’ What we have in view are any manners of motives, desires, wants, goals, hopes, and expectations that rule the heart of a child. Remember, these things do not have to be articulated to be present.
“As your children interact with their childhood experience, they interact based on their godward orientation. Either they respond to life as children of faith who know, love, and serve Jehovah, or they respond as children of foolishness, and unbelief, who neither know him nor serve him. The point is this: They do respond. They are not neutral. They are not simply the sum total of what you and I put into them; They interact with life either out of a true covenant of faith or out of an idolatrous covenant of disbelief.”
— Shepherding a Child’s Heart, p. 21
Leave a comment