Don’t Yield to Progressive Ideology
I’m increasingly bothered by the advice given to teens and young adults today. It may seem wise but it’s not. In fact, it’s worldly. Don’t blindly accept these five lies the world tells our kids. Scrutinize this so-called advice and make an informed decision.
Encourage the young adults in your life to do the same. Don’t blindly consent to these progressive ideas as conventional wisdom. Though there isn’t a lot of direct support in Scripture, the biblical narrative points to a different approach.
1. Get a College Degree
The common advice today for high schoolers is to go to college. This idea is so pervasive that to see a high school graduate not choosing this path seems like making a less-than-ideal choice.
While it’s critical to graduate from high school, a college degree doesn’t carry the same imperative.
Yes, some jobs do require a college degree, but most do not. Consider doctor, nurse, lawyer, accountant, engineer, architect, teacher, and others. These most always need the training and credentials of a college degree. Not so with other careers.
Consider that most people do not end up in the career they studied for in college. And some never work in that field at all. The result is they spend four, five, or more years preparing for something that never happens.
In addition is the massive debt that most students accumulate in pursuit of their college education.
They may endure decades shackled by this debt, which will keep them from making other important investments, such as buying a home, starting a business, or saving for the future.
Though sometimes the increased earning potential of a college degree will offset the student loan repayment, too often this is not the case.
And don’t expect this to happen if a student doesn’t graduate, goes into a different industry, or can’t find work in their desired field. Yet all three of these scenarios are common outcomes.
Also is the realization that going to college delays the student moving into adulthood in a meaningful and productive manner by several years.
And taking a gap year may provide needed clarity, but more likely it just delays the above concerns by one year.
For these reasons, unless a student is committed to a career that requires a college degree, the best course is to skip college.
2. Don’t Wait to Have Sex
Another lie the world tells our kids is that it’s okay—even advisable—to have sex outside of marriage. They view premarital sexual activity as inevitable, so why not embrace it?
They mock the teachings of the Bible toward sex as outdated, repressive, and even oppressive.
Birth control has decoupled sex from procreation, reducing the sex act to mere recreation. This moves sex from an act of love to the fulfillment of lust. It is sexual immorality.
It also risks dehumanizing the participants, especially when occurring outside the secure bond of marriage.
Yet God created us to have children and told us to do so. This should take place within the safe structure of a marriage between a man and a woman. This brings up the next lie.
3. Wait to Get Married
The third lie the world tells our kids is to wait to get married. Even worse is when it suggests skipping the marriage part completely and just living together.
The conventional wisdom is that delaying marriage allows each person to become more mature and therefore ready for marriage. But is anyone really ever ready? No, they’re not.
True, premarital counseling helps, as does having a married couple as mentors, but part of marriage is figuring it out as you go. Waiting until you’re older doesn’t help much.
In fact, it could work against you, as it allows for adult habits to form while being single, which you’ll need to overcome once you become a couple.
A bonus to getting married earlier is that there is less time you need to wait to have sex—assuming you’re following God’s plan to save sex for your spouse.
4. Wait to Have Kids
The next lie is to wait to have children. The reasoning is that as older parents you will bring more maturity and increased financial stability into your parenting. But you will also have less energy.
Another danger is that by waiting, you’ve lived a childless marriage long enough to have become self-centered, viewing children as a burden to bear or a sacrifice to make. This is a sad conclusion to what should be a desired and sought after outcome.
Even worse is to skip having children altogether, of not being fruitful and multiplying. Each couple has their part to play in perpetuating the species. Without children, our species will end.
Even more important is to produce God-honoring, kingdom-advancing offspring.
The good news in this is that the progressive-thinking people who embrace not having children will not have kids to perpetuate their misguided views.
5. You Need a Career to Find Fulfillment
The final lie the world tells our kids—especially our daughters—is that you need a career to find fulfillment.
But better is to find fulfillment in family, to relish and enjoy your spouse and your children.
If you tie your identity to your job and derive all your fulfillment from it, what happens when you retire or get laid off or are terminated? Then you’ve lost your identity and your fulfillment. What’s left? Not much.
Careers can change or will end, but once you have children, you’ll always be a parent. That is where your fulfillment should lie. Your job is a means to reach that objective.
Five Truths We Need to Teach the Next Generation
1. College is an option but not essential. If it’s required for your career, then go for it. Otherwise choose a different path.
2. Wait until you are married to have sex. Sex is reserved for marriage and has no place outside of it.
3. Get married sooner rather than later. Delaying marriage delays your future.
4. Have children sooner in your marriage and don’t delay it. Children are God’s intent.
5. Find fulfillment in your family. View your job as secondary.
Pursue these five truths and teach them to your children (Proverbs 22:6).
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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