The Worth Of Knowing

My kids loved watching the presidential inauguration. I wasn’t with them to witness their reactions, but I heard they were particularly enthusiastic about President Trump’s speech.

When I came home the first thing my daughter said was “We saw the new president!” She’s a bit too young to remember his first term 🙂

After they settled down from telling me about what they saw as well as the events of the morning (sledding was a highlight) I said, “There’s something about President Trump’s speech I want to talk to you about.”

They were both quiet.

“Do you remember when President Trump said someone tried to assassinate him and how his ear had been hurt?”

“Yeah, I remember something about that,” my daughter replied.

“Do you remember how afterward he said, ‘God saved me so that I can make America great again’?”

“Yes!” they both replied, their eyes lighting up. Even I was surprised how their remarks indicated that this line from the president’s speech had stood out in particular to them.

“Yeah, everyone was excited about that part and clapped a lot,” I said, “But I think we should talk about it. What did you think of it?”

Frankly, I think a conversation about the belief behind the line “God did ____ so that I can do ____” is a discussion all Christian parents should have with their kids regardless of their political affiliations.

As Christians our allegiance is to God’s Word first and so when anyone claims they know what God’s purpose is we must check it against the Bible whether we support their political policies or not.

Here’s the bullet points of the conversation my kids and I had:

• What is God’s purpose for people? to honor, glorify, and enjoy him forever

• What is the Biblical purpose of government? to punish evil and reward good

• Does the Bible say God saved Trump in order to make America great? no

• Does the Bible promise that America will become great? no

• Are we glad President Trump did not die? yes!

• Do we want America to be great? of course!

• But is it Biblical to say that God saved Trump in order to make America great? no

• Whenever anyone says “God says this” or “God did this for this reason” we have to check it against Scripture.

My kids are pretty young so this led to a conversation of what “biblical” even means. I could imagine the conversation going in a lot of other directions if they were older. This seemed like a good place to end for their level of interest and attention span.

Regardless, it’s a conversation that I hope will continue to lay the foundation for treating Scripture with the authority that the Word of God deserves.