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The Big 'G' Stands for Goofy, Gooshy Godlessness

  • Doug Dahl
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You have to take true wisdom where you find it, I guess. For example, this morning I was perusing the back of the Cheerios package while munching a tasty bowlful of the one-gram-of-sugar, toasted-whole-grain oat cereal. There at the bottom, under the heading "The Nurturing Corner," I found General Mills' formula for reconstructing the American family.

The Nurturing Corner announced "five great ways to show your kids you care," as quoted from the box:

  • Go on a family camping trip.
  • Exercise more as a family.
  • Designate one night as game night.
  • Leave a note in their lunchbox or backpack. [The General did not specify what the note should say.]
  • Help them set up a lemonade stand.

While I applaud the General's no-doubt financially disinterested concern for the American family, I wonder if he might allow me to offer an amendment by substitution. Here are my "five great ways to show your kids you care":

  • Teach them that they are natural-born sinners subject to the wrath of a Holy God, and call upon them to trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation from eternal punishment in hell.
  • Make them, with yourself, part of a Bible-believing, covenant-honoring local church.
  • Protect and nurture their nascent faith during their formative years by teaching them yourself at home, rather than sending them to government schools or even "Christian public schools."
  • Make sure that they understand and embrace a full-orbed Christian worldview that undergirds their beliefs and actions in every sphere of life.
  • Draw from them, at a very early age, a commitment to biblical courtship that will eliminate ahead of time the dangers of the pagan American dating game with its deliberate destruction of both marriage and faith in Jesus Christ.

I suspect the General might demur of my good-faith offer to amend his deep and abiding wisdom. So I offer it to what I hope is a more receptive audience. God does not honor gooshy goofiness, but faithfulness to the requirements of his covenant. As Christian parents, we owe no less to our God and to the children he has graciously given us.