Developing Discerning Sons & Daughters

by John Lohman, Pastor of Family Life and Counseling

Educators report that their students, in an effort to defend untenable positions, often insist:  “It’s just my opinion.  One opinion is as good as another.”  Such statements are a common everyday occurrence in classrooms across our land.  Educators and school administrators are rightfully concerned.  

Statements like these are being heard in public and parochial school classrooms, as well as in the Christian education wings and classrooms of our churches.  

Statements such as these are a reflection of the secular mentality which mistakenly holds to the relativity of truth and denies the possibility of certainty.  Additionally, these statements can also be a sign of underdeveloped critical listening, viewing, and thinking skills – a limitation which can leave a young person vulnerable and at risk.  

The seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts underscores the importance of developing a discerning and discriminating approach to listening, viewing, and taking in information.  While the people of the city of Berea listened to Paul preach, they utilized their evaluative listening skills in order to strain out and separate error from truth.  Most importantly, their constructively critical approach to listening was informed by the absolute truth of God as contained with the Word of God.

How might parents help their sons and daughters further develop and sharpen their critical thinking skills and thus become more discerning?  Let me offer a few suggestions:

• After viewing a television program with your children, discuss some thought-provoking evaluative questions.  
• At dinner, ask your son or daughter to tell you about a class lecture or section read in a text.  Discuss and evaluate it.  
• Ask for your daughter’s or son’s opinion of the message of the lyrics of a song just heard over the radio while driving in the car.  Discuss together values, lifestyle, philosophy, morals.  
• Rent a Christian or non-Christian movie and evaluate it together.
• Evaluate a television commercial together.  (One network aired a Saturday morning children’s program which dealt with the importance of being a discerning viewer.)

P.S.  Facilitating dialogue rather than preaching sermons will be a key to creating an atmosphere where open communication will be likely to take place.