Miss Johanna Timmer is the departmental editor in charge of Reformed Women Speak. Mrs. Joseph Folkert, writer of this article, is from Des Plaines, Illinois.
Some time ago a pastor was heard defending the use of “pop” music in the church, saying that you have to appeal to our young people.
Quietly thinking this over by myself later on, I thought: Isn‘t it funny, I can hardly help my children with their homework because of its difficulty and yet in areas like Bible and music their intellect seems to fail them, so that the things of God have to be put on a most simple, and always appealing basis.
Are we not limiting the power of the Holy Spirit and belittling Almighty God when we feel it necessary to imitate the ways of the world as closely as we can in order to appeal to our young people? Is it just possible that our discerning youth come to the conclusion that we are not too sure of our “product,” if I might call it that, and so have to turn to the world for advertising techniques?
If God is real to me, and we teach our children in their early years that God is very real and that He demands of them obedience and love even as we as earthly parents do in exchange for our love and care and because God demands it of them, we will not have to resort to all sorts of come-ons to attract our young people. I have a feeling that when we try to imitate the world, we shortchange our children, giving them stones instead of bread.
Be sure, parents, that our children can discern the difference between what are our own sinful purposes and what is the will of God.
When I look at our Christian schools, I can’t help but wonder to what extent they are Christian in name only. In what respect do our girls look different from those of the world? When my daughter was still in high school she honestly believed she was the only one in the school that didn’t attend movies. Dancing was done not only in homes at parties, but interpretative dancing was done for chapel. Faith–healers, dressed like hippies, were invited more than once to speak at chapel. I could go on, but let me just say that sometimes I can‘t help wondering whether all the Christian school money my husband worked for, could have been put to better use.
While I’m thinking of the school, I can‘t help thinking of us older people, the ones responsible for this generation. We are so taken up with hair–do‘s (and dyes), vacations, the latest in clothes, etc., that we have too little time and desire to meditate upon and ponder the things of the Lord so that we may be sensitive to the difference between the things that are from above and those that are from below, between music born of heaven and music blasting forth from the kingdom of darkness.
