Greetings, Friends.
As a quick aside, I will be unavailable for the next day or two, so I won't be blogging tomorrow and I apologize for any delayed responses to emails.
I am grateful to God for His providence in working in and through young people at my church to step up in my absence. Several young adults planned and led our summer youth retreat in the VA mountains, and several of the older youth gave the daily talks to their younger associates. To read the message outlines of several of these 17-19 year olds was pretty remarkable. These messages were reverent, coherent, and articulate. I am very proud of the youth and volunteers and grateful to God.
It simply reminds me of the wonder of the hearts and minds that God has given youth, even children at the youngest ages, and the wonder of those hearts and minds when devoted to His service in particular.
There is no reason why a young child cannot memorize a catechism of 110 questions and answers, and thus gain a theological and philosophical grid for understand one's own beliefs and engaging the beliefs of others.
There is no reason to dumb down teaching material for children, just as the military often dumbs down presentations made to very sharp soldiers.
There is no reason for children to not learn basics in the Bible, theology, philosophy, grammar, literature, history, civics, economics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and ancient and modern languages from their elementary school years.
And there is no reason to assume that children cannot engage in all of these disciplines with hearts devoted to the glory of God from birth, as He can give saving faith to the most infantile of minds (even in the womb) just as He gives saving faith to the most sinful of minds.
Praise be to God for such manifest glory and for demonstrating that glory out of the mouths of babes.
