Parents may worry that theology is too complicated for children, but author and theologian Trevin Wax says culture is not waiting before teaching them what to love, believe and pursue.
In a new conversation with CBN’s “Faith in Culture,” Wax challenges Christian parents to recognize that every child is already being formed by stories, habits, screens, friends and institutions.
The question is not whether children are being discipled. The question is who—or what—is doing the discipling.
Formation Is Already Happening
Discipleship is sometimes treated as a formal lesson reserved for church or a later stage of life. In reality, children learn constantly. They absorb what adults celebrate, fear, prioritize and ignore. They learn what matters by watching how families spend time and how parents respond to pressure.
This does not mean giving young children abstract lectures. It means offering truthful, age-appropriate answers and making Christian belief part of ordinary life—at meals, in conflict, through prayer, in entertainment choices and during conversations about events in the world.
THRIVE! Perspective: Discipleship Begins in Ordinary Life
Biblical reflection: Deuteronomy 6:6–7 places teaching God’s ways within everyday family life. Parents do not need to reproduce a classroom at home, but they do need to make room for Scripture, honest questions and lived faith. The following practical applications are THRIVE!’s reflection on the topic, not additional quotations or advice attributed to Wax.
Parents Do Not Need to Know Everything
Many parents hesitate because they fear difficult questions or feel unprepared. But faithful leadership does not require having every answer. It requires humility, consistency and a willingness to seek wisdom alongside a child.
Simple practices can carry lasting weight: reading Scripture together, praying honestly, serving neighbors, asking what a story teaches about good and evil, and allowing children to see repentance modeled at home.
The goal is not to shelter children from every competing idea. It is to give them a foundation strong enough to recognize truth, test what they hear and understand the Gospel as more than a weekly activity.
Wax’s warning is urgent, but it is also hopeful. Parents still possess profound influence—and ordinary faithfulness, practiced repeatedly, can shape a home for generations.
Source: CBN Faith in Culture.
