A really good parenting question in the inbox today.

How do we raise kids who are not naive and not cynical?

It's a question from a dad, a listener to the podcast named Rick in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hello Pastor John Matthew 1016 says we are to be true to snakes and innocent as doves.

As we raise our children, we don't want them to be gullible or naive yet we also don't

want them to be hard-hearted and cynical.

How then do we shape their perspectives in preparing them for this world?

What mistakes and consequences can be the result of this effort?

Well, this is such a good question because it reflects a very mature grasp of one of

the main paradoxes of the Christian life.

On the one hand, Jesus is sending us out into the world like sheep amid wolves and sheep

are very vulnerable.

They're not viewed as belligerent, nobody's afraid of a sheep biting them.

But on the other hand, we are to be wise and discerning and mature and stable and strong

and true and not duped by the winds of false teaching.

So there it is, the paradox and he's got it.

We're to be on the one hand humble and lowly, counting others more significant than ourselves

and yet, on the other hand, unwavering in our convictions full of courage because

Proverbs says the righteous are as bold as a lion.

So Rick, it seems to me, has a pretty good grasp of the challenge in front of us not

only to be this way but to raise kids who become adults who are this way.

Now I don't know that I can say anything he wouldn't think of on his own since he's

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