The Kids are Listening

You never know what might come out of your child’s mouth—in public.

Our family was on vacation in Switzerland, a three hours’ drive from our home in southwestern Germany. At a park playground, my six- or seven-year-old son was climbing up the steps of a slide when an older Swiss boy pushed him aside and climbed around him to the top.

My son didn’t miss a beat.

He called in no uncertain tones, “Who are you to defy the armies of the living God?”

My husband and I, momentarily stunned, doubled over with laughter. The Swiss kid took no notice. He probably didn’t understand English.

I still chuckle.

The point is, our son had listened. He had listened to stories about the shepherd boy David and his daring taunt to Israel’s foe, the giant, Goliath of Gath. i He heard it from us, as we read the story from the Bible. He heard it dramatized on the radio series Adventures in Odyssey. ii Clearly, he had internalized not only David’s words but the concept of unwarranted defiance toward God from an enemy. (Though he may have misapplied the concept in this case.)

The boy David himself listened, which is why we have the account of him slaying a man several times his size, outfitted in armor and carrying a javelin. David, a youth, had no armor—only a slingshot and a few stones as weapons. David had listened to the stories told by his elders of how the living God was their God—and was worth defending, even to the death. He internalized those stories in the immense stillness of the pastures while caring for his sheep. He wrote them in the form of poems and sang them as his devotion to God. Others wrote David’s own story—so that we, too, can listen.

David’s songs and poems, as well as his actions, show that he cared deeply for God’s reputation.

The boy Samuel listened. Living, as a young child, not at home but in a temple, he learned to distinguish God’s voice—calling in the quietness of his bed—from that of his master, the priest Eli. Eli grasped Samuel’s confusion and instructed him: “When He calls you, say, ‘Here I am.’” iii And Samuel, a young boy, began listening to God. As he grew, he listened repeatedly to God’s voice and became known as a respected and trusted prophet.

“And the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.”

That is real listening and real internalizing, resulting in real action. Samuel cared deeply for God’s reputation.

A little girl, nameless to us, was carried off from her home in Israel by Syrian raiders. When her master, the commander of the Syrian army, was afflicted with leprosy, the little girl did not miss a beat. She knew where to turn: to the prophet of the Lord, Elisha, who would know how to cure her master. The arrogant Syrian commander reacted with scoffing and cynicism but eventually obeyed the prophet and was cured. He came to believe that “there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.”

All because of a little girl. iv

How did she have this knowledge as a child living in a godless land? She had heard stories of the prophets while still at home. How else could she have such confidence that Elisha was a prophet of the living God? She listened.

This little girl cared deeply for God’s reputation.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah. Who did Josiah listen to? Both his grandfather, Manasseh, and his father, Amon, were two of the most evil kings in Judah’s history. It might be expected that Josiah would follow in their footsteps and become like them. But, after a long and disastrous reign, Manasseh humbled himself before God, repented of his idolatrous acts, and set about righting much of the wrong he had done. His change of heart did not, however, carry over to his son. And the boy Josiah became king in his father’s place.

At age sixteen, Josiah, “while he was still a youth…began to seek the God of his father David.” Josiah was in David’s family line! Of course he knew the stories—the accounts of David’s daring and of his heart for God, the writings and the songs. How else could he seek the true God without listening to the stories? Josiah wanted to be like David, rather than like his own father. “Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might…nor did any like him arise after him.” v

Josiah, while still a youth, wanted to honor God’s reputation and his commandments.

Jesus himself, as a boy of twelve, listened. He had, no doubt, listened to his earthly parents, but he also sought out teachers in the temple, “listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” vi Yes, he was gifted with divine knowledge, but he “increased in wisdom,” indicating that he, too, listened. And, as a twelve-year-old, he continued to be in submission to his parents, understanding his place as a boy in his earthly family.

We know that Jesus cared deeply about his Father God’s reputation.

The kids are listening. That’s what they do, for better or worse. What are they listening to? Whose stories inspire them?

The best stories, the stories of daring and conviction, of deeds that honor God’s Word and his reputation are what they must listen to, over and over and over, until they are internalized. Until they, too, are ready to speak and act because they care, deeply, about God’s reputation.

Maybe not on the playground. But who knows? Maybe the courage to defend God’s name can begin even there.

i The story is found in 1 Samuel 17.

ii Good news: it’s still produced by “Focus on the Family” radio drama.

iii His story is found in 1 Samuel 3.

iv Her story is found in 2 Kings 5.

v His story is in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 24.

vi See Luke 2.