Random Thoughts from DeHart

Train the child in the way he should go, and he will not part form it. This paraphrased proverb is held as absolute fact when it comes to how parents raise their children. It is no small fact that if a child comes from an abusive home, he, in turn, will become abusive. In an orphanage, where only the necessities are given, children become withdrawn. Children who are happy and self-reliant come from homes where the parents set firm boundaries, but not so firm that they entrench on the child’s sense of control. If you compare a child’s views to that of his or her parent, you would find that they are mirrored with only the slightest difference in conviction strength compared to the origin. When children are successful, we congratulate the parents of the child. The parents feel pride for their child as they see their hard work paying off. When a child messes up, it is another story. The parents will feel shame and wonder where they went wrong, while blame is piled on them from outsi...

God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. This is a well-known belief among Christians which comes from Isaiah 55:8-9. What impact does that have for us though? We start out looking at Jean Piaget’s studies with children. Children, at early ages, have not fully developed to understand this world. Take a toy and hide it under a blanket in front of a one year old child and the child believes the toy does not exist anymore. Try using an analogy with a five year old and the child will not understand, the same way an eight year old cannot reason. Children are not developed to handle these concepts yet. In knowing this, we must recognize that we must not use adult concepts for children, but use things proper for their understanding. Like children who cannot understand the thinking of adults, so can adults cannot understand the thinking of God. In trying to, we run into paradoxes. One of these is, If God is all-good and omnipotent, why is there evil? Another is, if God created ...