these shaping influences biblically. Such understanding will aid you
in your task as parents.
(^) You make a grave mistake if you conclude that childrearing is
nothing more than providing the best possible shaping influences for
your children. Many Christian parents adopt this “Christian
determinism.” They figure that if they can protect and shelter him
well enough, if they can always be positive with him, if they can send
him to Christian schools or if they can home school, if they can
provide the best possible childhood experience, then their child will
turn out okay.
(^) These parents are sure that a proper environment will produce a
proper child. They respond almost as if the child were inert. Such a
posture is simply determinism dressed in Christian clothes.
(^) I have a friend who is a potter. He told me that he can only create
the type of pot the clay he is working with will allow him to create.
The clay is not merely passive in his hands. The clay responds to him.
Some clay is elastic and supple. Some clay is crumbly and hard to
shape.
(^) His observation provides a good analogy: You must be concerned
with providing the most stable shaping influences, but you may never
suppose that you are merely molding passive clay. The clay responds
to shaping; it either accepts or rejects molding. Children are never
passive receivers of shaping. Rather, they are active responders.
(^) Your son or daughter responds according to the Godward focus of
his or her life. If your child knows and loves God, if your child has
embraced the fact that knowing God can enable him to know peace in
any circumstance, then he will respond constructively to your shaping
efforts. If your child does not know and love God, but tries to satisfy
his soul’s thirst by drinking from a “cistern that cannot hold
water....” (Jeremiah 2:13), your child may rebel against your best
efforts. You must do all that God has called you to do but the outcome
is more complex than whether you have done the right things in the