A Resource I Wish I Had…

Sometime in the last year I came across a book called Mama Bear Apologetics, by Hillary Morgan Ferrer. The title intrigued me, so I proceeded to check it out. I have since purchased it and find it to be a resource that I refer back to often. This type of book that speaks to the average Christian mom while at the same time, breaking issues we are currently facing from a rich theological perspective, is hard to find. Since my kids are all either at ages where they seek out their own information, or are moving into those years, I really wish I had this book on my shelf back when they were little. Hindsight is 20/20, but I am beginning to see now where the holes are in how we have passed our faith on to our kids. One quote from the book that better explains the vision we need to have for our children as they grow up in a home of faith states, “It isn’t enough for our kids to hear us talk about the truth; they must understand how we are to live the truth” (Ferrer, 2019, p.17). Many times we can spoon feed our kids Bible truths or elements of our faith without teaching them to dig deeper and think through the ‘why’.

The author does a great job of compiling various topics that our families will no doubtedly navigate in the culture we live in. As I see the flood of half truths and lies that are spun in attractive ways through social media, and how the messages can slowly cause young people to change course, the importance of teaching critical thinking becomes clear. The book talks about teaching our kids to ‘chew & spit’ when it comes to information they take in. As they learn this, they learn to take an accurate look at things, identify what is good in it as well as what is bad. Given that they also have a Biblical foundation, kids can correctly identify good and bad or right and wrong through the lens of scripture. A couple other topics in the book that I found to be very helpful include linguistic theft, referring to words that have had their definitions changed in order to be used as propaganda; and great chapters on relativism and pluralism. One common scenario that is discussed in the chapter on moral relativism is the idea that “if absolute truth can’t be known and all we can do is ‘live our truth,’ then we must figure out a way to get along when our truths inevitably conflict (because they will!)” (Ferrer, 2019, p.150). This helps our young people to see the hang-up with the absence of absolute truth.

I am holding onto the reassurance that it is never too late to learn new insights as a parent, and we are discussing some of these topics around our dinner table. This last year has been especially eye opening for us as well as many families we know, as to just how much our teens have already taken in ideas that contradict many of our values. As a parent of teens it is important to maintain a curious and open posture when discussing these issues. If you are able to keep the dialogue going, it can allow you to explain the reasons for the values that you hold to, but more than anything I am trusting the power of prayer for my teens as they move toward adulthood!

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Mama Bear Apologetics (2019). Hillary Morgan Ferrer. Harvest House Publishers.