Latest / Homeschool Insights - Biblical Home Education Inspiration in Under 10 Minutes! / Why “Safe” Stories Are Dangerous for Your Kids - S.D. Smith
Transcript
- speaker-0: I don't want lie to them about the world. So I would rather have robust stories that are not safe, that are dangerous, that create kids who are dangerous to the darkness. speaker-1: We have kind of a an exciting tantalizing title for this episode. It's called Not Safe Stories, but good. Good and dangerous ones. And I think we probably ought to just start this episode by talking about what in the world do you mean by that? speaker-0: Hmm. Yeah, I think that it it's that's a nice clue. Talking about r you know, excellent literature that's really ⁓ stood the test of time and is standing the test of time. We we all think about C.S. Lewis and his Narnia books and and there is that it's kind of cliche now because so many people talk about this quotation about Aslan is is ⁓ good, but he's not safe, ⁓ that Mr. Beaver says in that. But I don't I don't care. That that it's bears repeating. ⁓ it's it's something that's so profound and so beautiful. And I think it's it it ⁓ points us to, you know, like so much of Narni does, it just points us to this sort of really deep truth about the universe ⁓ and about the way God made the world, about reality with a capital R. And I really, really resonate with that because I mean, as a parent, you know, I'm a homeschool parent too, and you know, we we care so much about our kids and we want them to be safe, like that is. A value that we want them to be safe. It's like we're that's part of our job, is protecting them. And I think it's like a lot of other good things, we can if if we if that's the only virtue that we focus on entirely, safety, then it that becomes a very dangerous thing to do, I think, just as parents. So if you're if you're whole, I mean we've all seen this, we've probably seen it in homeschool families where you're so terrified of everything out there. You're just all about protection, all about ⁓ keeping everything that's possibly bad out, ⁓ that we just that you create a fearful, miserable, ⁓ you know, human being. And we can we can become that. That's so I think that's far more dangerous. And I think Christians who have been in the arts have been, I think, rightly a little bit ⁓ want to be protective because there's so much toxic stuff and there's so much kind of thing and you know how powerful stories are to shape our imaginations and our loves and our affections. And we want our kids to have these properly ordered affections. And it's tough because so so you you have this really like kind of a good value, but if it's when it's cranked up too much or isolated, it's it does it it hurts us. It's kind of I don't know. Brian Brown said that truth and beauty and goodness ⁓ live together or die separated. And I think there's there's kind of a there's this balance to these values. Like the Lord Jesus, you know, and in in John, he says that that the Jesus came full of grace and truth. And we all seen sort of like if you're just all grace and you have no truth, it's kind of there's this there's some challenges with that. If you're all truth and you have no grace, there's some ugliness to that. So I think this thing with with ⁓ th coming to literature, coming to media and just saying if safety or like safe and clean And truthful are the only values we have. I think we're gonna have some pretty crummy stories. Because I don't think that I don't think the Bible is safe. I don't think that the Christian life is safe. I don't think that life, period, is safe. It's a difficult, dangerous endeavor. And what I would rather do is tell stories that are faithful to reality, including the challenges. For for me, as a father of a father's heart telling these stories. These stories, my stories first were were were told to my own kids. So I have a a a deep sincerity and a deep love for the audience, the original audience and the audience now. And I want to give them good gifts. I do not want to hurt them. I don't want expose them to stuff that's not help help helpful for them. But I just do not want to put that, you know, I don't want to make them I don't want to lie to them about the world. I don't want to lie them about lie to them about what they're gonna face. So I would rather have robust stories that help. That are not safe, that are dangerous, that create kids who are dangerous to the darkness, that create kids who are sort of aware and are armed. Like that's kind of what I want to do. I want to give them armor. I don't want to say nothing's never gonna hurt you, pat your head, everything's gonna be safe. If you just do the right things, nothing bad will happen. I think that's a lie. That's not true. I think there's an ultimate sense in which that's can be faithful, but you're setting someone up for a radical. ⁓ collision with reality that's not going to be pleasant. I'd rather much rather say, no, things are tough. It's tough. I'd rather build that arm or build that character in the kids to kind of give them a gift so that when they do face the inevitable and and I don't know, you know, you for me, k kids really resonate with these stories who are going through cancer, who are going through the loss of a parent, loss of a sibling. I hear those stories a an awful lot. Military families, third culture kids, missionary kids, these these are people who resonate with this. And they're they're not strangers to suffering. And so I I I love I wanna love those kids and I don't wanna lie to any kids and I wanna help equip them for the the good fight ahead. speaker-2: This episode of Homeschool Insights is brought to you by Liberty HealthShare. Choosing to homeschool is about making intentional decisions for your family. Liberty HealthShare is another way families across the country are choosing a different path, one that offers a community-centered approach to health care cost sharing that can help you keep more of your hard-earned dollars while getting the medical care your family needs. Learn more at LibertyHealthShare.org. That's LibertyHealthShare.org.