Along with Shepherding a Child's Heart, by his brother, Tedd Tripp, Age of Opportunity is one of the best books for parents that I've ever read. Our cell group is studying it, and last night discussed chapter 10, which talks about the effect of culture (the world) on our families and children.
Tripp describes two families, one on each extreme of engaging/disengaging the culture. One keeps all 'worldiness' out, while the other is virtually undetectible from the culture at large. I definitely lean more toward the first variety, but hopefully without making the error he points out, that of leaving the impression on my kids that evil is outside us, as opposed to rooted in the sinful nature inside us.
What's interesting is that this morning I was reading Matthew 5, in which Jesus refers to salt losing its saltiness and then to lighting a lamp and putting it under a bushel. It occurs to me that Tripp's fictional families could be described in those terms as well. The family whose children live firmly in the world are clearly in danger of losing their saltiness, while those who avoid the culture to 'avoid being polluted by the world' -James 2?- are in danger of putting a bushel over their light.
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