This sponsored post was prepared by Evangelicals for Life and was written by Daniel Darling.
As Christian parents, it is important we teach our kids the truth about who they are, who God is, and about their place in the mission of God. One important piece of this role is to teach and talk to our kids about what it means to be human and to see the humanity of others.
Here are some ways we have found helpful in our home as we discuss issues of human dignity with our kids.
Commit to Understanding Human Dignity. We cannot teach what we do not know. It’s important for us to understand what the Bible says about the uniqueness of humanity. Moses, writing in Genesis 1:26-27, tells us that humans were created in the image of God. Distinct from the rest of creation, humans were given the breath of life and became living souls. Humans were uniquely given stewardship over creation and given a mandate to work, to create, to innovate, all for the glory of God.
But the image of God is not reduced simply to cognitive or rational abilities, as even those who are disabled or who do not have full functions still bear the full image of God. And even in a fallen world, fallen creatures bear the full image of God, as evidenced by God’s instructions to Noah in Genesis 9 and James word to the early church in James 3.
Communicate Often About What It Means to be Human. It is important that our kids understand that they are created in God’s image. This gives us both honor and responsibility. To be an image-bearer, means we were created to image our creator. Since the Fall, we are tempted to either turn inward and worship ourselves or turn upward and worship our creator. Christ’s death and resurrection redeems our humanity, reconciling us to our creator, and restoring us to our original creative purposes.
This has implications for the way we see ourselves. We are not our own, but were created by God for his glory. This has implications for the way we see our work, not as drudgery or a means to an end, but a gift from God. We were created to create.
This also has implications for the way we see other human beings. As C.S. Lewis says in The Weight of Glory, “You have never met a mere mortal.” The first step in loving our neighbors as ourselves is to see our neighbors as fellow image-bearers, even those with whom we profoundly disagree.
Capitalize On Opportunities To Live Out Scripture’s Vision of Human Dignity. In a fallen world, image-bearers, in every generation, seek to assault the dignity of their fellow image-bearers, through violence and oppression. In our generation, we see assaults on the imago dei all around us, from the abortion industry to racial injustice to the way we are tempted to talk about immigrants and refugees. As parents, we can point to these things and remind our kids of the humanity of the vulnerable and our responsibility, in positions of power and privilege, to speak out on their behalf. Sometimes we do activism in big public ways. Other times its simply standing up for a bullied kid at school or refusing to belittle someone with whom we disagree. Mostly our kids will repeat what they see modeled in us, their parents. Do we live out what we say we believe?
This idea of human dignity is why we are so passionate about equipping voices for life at our annual Evangelicals for Life Event in Washington, D.C. Every year we gather people from around the country to come and be equipped on how best to speak up for the dignity of human life, from womb to tomb and then we march together in the annual March for Life.
Join us on January 18-20, 2018 for this important pro-life conference. Register by December 6 and save 15% off the ticket price. Use the code CHALLIES to save an extra 20%.
