Pet parakeets pick up (and repeat) sounds and words that the owners don’t even intentionally teach. Like imitating the owner’s cough. Or things the owner often says on the phone: “Hello!… Call you later.” And then, of course, when the owner deliberately says a phrase to the parakeet multiple times, the bird is soon repeating that. My friend taught her parakeet to say “Behave!” The bird could then do Mom’s job of scolding the kids. Ha!
If even pet parakeets take in what’s being said, let’s remember that kids do even more so. They’re absorbing/repeating what parents/friends spit out. Perhaps we’ve all known times when, say, Uncle Wally was visiting and the 5-year-old blurted out, “Uncle Wally, why are you an idiot? Daddy says you always…” Uh-oh!
Or maybe we put down the young people themselves. Check out the last three minutes of this video, “Reaching the Next Generation for Christ.” J. Warner Wallace uses an idea he’s seen Sean McDowell do. He asked his audience to name some adjectives to describe Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012). The audience threw out words like selfish, entitled… And Wallace said this is what typically happens. All negative. So here is the generation we want to reach for the Lord, but we’re characterizing them like this? And do they hear us belittling them in this way? Uh-oh! (See more from Wallace and McDowell via my “Recommended” page.)
Or maybe we merely voice fear and anger more than we testify to what the Lord has done/will do/can do. Do we often blurt out “Oh no! What are we gonna do?” or “I can’t stand that so-and-so!” or “How could God let this happen?”
Consider these Scriptures:
- “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.” (Psalm 78:4)
- This was directly to OT Israel, but surely the general principle stands: “Do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Deuteronomy 4:9; see also 6:6, 7; Jeremiah 31:33)
- “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)
- When rulers ordered Peter and John to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, they boldly replied, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20)
We can be more vocal to let kids see our courage, trust, and praise as we remind them of the Lord’s power and love. So tell them how you talked with a friend about the Lord—and how that friend listened! Describe to them what happened when you determined to be thankful for your job even though that day at work promised to be brutal. Pray together when you’ve got only $5 with which to buy groceries for the whole week. (And we must be careful, too, not to convey that “answered prayer” necessarily means we get exactly what we want.)
Besides personal testifying, we could also read together accounts of some of the quite young Bible heroes—with the idea of encouraging the kids to imitate them. The example of Joseph in “Doggone Those Heroes!” will give you ideas.
So will you join me in a bit of self-evaluation? Let’s make sure the kids in our lives are overhearing more of good testifying, more of the Lord’s truth, than talk related to illogical criticism, fear, lack of faith, selfishness, resentment, etc. In other words, everybody—and with apologies to my friend’s parakeet—“Behave!”
