Graduation is just around the corner for many of our young people—whether your own children or students in your church. Many of the high school graduates will soon be off to college armed with their completed ACT or SAT scores. Those tests are the big bridge that must be crossed in order to enter their desired school. Increasingly, parents have devoted a lot of time and effort in preparing their children for these tests. That’s not a bad thing…as long as it is seen within a proper perspective.
I wonder if we, as parents, sometimes need to be reminded of these words by President Theodore Roosevelt:
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
Keep in mind: Theodore Roosevelt DID have a thorough college education. But he acknowledged that there was something more important—a thorough knowledge of the Bible. So here is a question for parents and the church—How do you know if your children and students have a thorough knowledge of the Bible? Do you have any way to assess this? Is there a type of Bible ACT or SAT you use before they reach adulthood? (Please don’t misunderstand: I am not saying there is an academic type of assessment that is ultimate in determining true saving faith. But there is a minimal body of knowledge that needs to been known, understood, and embraced for true saving faith.) This is a great question to ponder this summer. Along with that, here’s a challenge: What about parents and church working together to come up with some biblical literacy assessments to use with our children and students—at various ages—to provide some goals to aim for and a means to see if our students are meeting these goals? It could be that you and your church are already doing this. But my guess is that many are not, or could be doing better. Do you have some examples of actually doing this? We’d love to hear from you! To get your creative juices flowing, you might want to look at these 39 questions that we believe our children and students should be able to answer by the time they reach adulthood.(Image courtesy of Becris at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)
