by Rev. Benjamin Chung (鍾立恆牧師)
I saw a mother on Facebook post about how her child’s teacher informed them that their daughter would slap people. The parents did not truly believe this, until their first week homeschooling when their daughter did slap someone at home. Now the parents do believe the teacher. This likely means that the parents likely thought their daughter was more innocent that she let on!
This “shelter in place” is necessary on many levels. Talking with a cousin who is a psychologist, she sees how this time is going to be eye-opening to many families. Instead of sending their children to school, the children are required to be home with their parents. This is a wonderful opportunity for families to spend more time together. It also means that the parents will see more of their children’s good and bad behaviors. What this also does is force is to understand that schools are here to assist in teaching our children. But, in reality, the primary responsibility for rearing children are the parents, not the school teachers. Schools are primarily to teach academics, but it so often seems parents can leave the training of ethics, morals and the like, up to schools too!
Conversely, some parents have actually chosen to homeschool their children before the required “homeschooling” because they do want to make sure that their children are brought up well according to biblical standards, also knowing that their children are a gift from God to raise up according to God’s will.
The same is also true for the church. The Sunday School lessons we teach children should also be thought of as a supplemental teaching that reinforces the biblical teaching Christian parents are already teaching their kids. For as parents, raising our children isn’t just a task so that our children will love us and take care of us when we are old. This is a good and honoring responsibility, but this should not a parent’s primary motivation. Rather, we must acknowledge as the Psalmist does of how “Children are a heritage from the LORD” (Psalm 127:3a ESV). A heritage is a gift. So the Psalmist is saying that children are given to us by God and we should joyful acknowledge the holy task we have in the raising up of these precious gifts.
PS. Please wish Alfonso and Susan Chang a congratulations as they became grandparents last Sunday! They also have a holy task as grandparents! 😊
Translation:
我在Facebook 上看到一位母親談及從她女兒的老師得知女兒在學校打人的帖子。父母對老師所講並不完全相信，直到女兒因為學校關閉，在家裡上學的第一個星期就動手打人。現在這對父母確實相信老師的說話。其實這意味著父母多數偏信自己的兒女！
在許多層面上，現在的「封城」是必需的。我與一位心理學家的表妹交談，她發現這段時間可能令許多家庭的父母大開眼界。兒女們都不用上學，要和父母一起在家日對夜對。對於父母來說，這是一個絕佳的機會，可以花更多的時間與兒女相處。但這也會令父母會看到更多自己孩子的好與壞表現。
這段時間叫我們了解到學校其實只是輔助我們去教育兒女。實際上，養育和教導兒女的主要責任在父母手上，而不是學校的老師。學校主要是在學術上教導，但許多父母常常把道德方面的
教育也留給學校！現在社會，有一些父母選擇了用「家庭學校」來教育兒女，因為他們想確保自己的兒女能按照聖經的標準下受教育。他們知道兒女是從神而來的禮物，因此要以遵守神的旨意為大前提來教育兒女。
其實父母對教會也應如此。主日學也應該被認為是一種輔助性的教學。主日學可加強基督徒父母在家所教導兒女的聖經基礎。對於許多父母來說，養育兒女只是一項責任，以便兒女們在父母年長後會愛護並照顧他們。雖然是個崇高責任，但這不應該是作為父母的主要工作。相反，我們必須像詩篇裹的詩人那樣去承認：「是耶和華所賜的產業」（詩篇127：3 上）。產業是神給父母的禮物。因此，詩人說，兒女是神賜予我們的，我們應該熱烈地承擔養育這些寶貴禮物所應負上的神聖任務。
我們在這特別恭喜陳鴻鈞夫婦上星期日正式成為公公婆婆！作為祖父母也有同樣的神聖任務啊！