Evolving...


Well, it happened.

Everyone warned us that it would. It is the concern most widely expressed by most of our Christian friends when we have the "Public School" conversation.

Our daughter was exposed to (you might want to be sitting down for this...) evolution. (cue dramatic ba-ba-BUUUUHHH music)

Technically, she was introduced to something akin to the big bang theory.

It didn't happen in the way we would have expected. It wasn't a teacher reading from science curriculum or another student engaging her in a heated debate about faith or telling her she was stupid for believing in a Creator God. It was sneakier than that: she brought home a reading book. It explained the origins of the earth.

As she read Earth: The Water Planet aloud to us my mind started racing. First, I was annoyed. "Come on," I thought. "She's a first grader. It's a reading group book, for reading. Not a science lesson. Couldn't the teacher have chosen something less controversial?"

Then I started planning my attack. How would I appropriately express my concerns to the teacher? Did I want to become THAT mom? What are my rights in this situation? Can I request that my child read a different book if this particular science isn't a part of first grade curriculum?

When I heard these thoughts in my head, I changed course. We knew this would happen. We expected it. We weren't afraid of it. Maybe we didn't expect it this early, or this covertly, but it did, and my up-in-arms mentality was sounding too much like the image we are trying to overcome by simply being Christ-followers in a public school in the first place.

So, we talked about it. I pointed out phrases like "scientists think" and "scientists are not sure." We talked about why they "think" life began 3.5 billion years ago, or why they "believe" the earth is 4.6 billion years old. I asked her what she knew about the beginning of the earth, and what might be missing from this book.

And guess what? She got it.

We read Genesis 1 and discussed how maybe God DID use exploding gases and compressed matter and whatever else the scientists think was involved. We talked about how, if you don't believe in God, you have to figure out some way to explain how we got here. We held up the Bible, and we held up her book, and we asked her to point to the one that is always true.

And she understood. She was able to grasp that man tries, but cannot always be true - and so when man's word disagrees with God's word, we go with God's word.

I don't think she's scarred for life. I don't think she experienced any kind of crisis of faith. If anything, I think it was a tremendous opportunity at a very young age to experience a little testing. She had a chance to think critically about something important, and to learn to respect differences of belief while still sticking to her guns.

Crisis averted.

Comments

What a great teaching moment. A scary one...but a great moment. It's amazing what they understand at such a young age!
Mom said…
Sounds like God gave you the wisdom needed to handle it perfectly! Way to go!
Autumn said…
cool...I enjoy topics with my kids where we can have a discussion. I enjoy that they feel free to talk about something that's different than what we believe in the safety of our home and guidance.

Good for you guys!
Amy, I love the way you share with us your public school experience. Do you happen to read Shelly @ Life on the Wild Side? She wrote about public school a while back, and it made me think of you. I agree with “Mom” – God obviously gave you wisdom for this situation, and gave your daughter the “rich soil” for hearing your seeds of wisdom.
Jennifer said…
Amy...I tried to find a way to email you, but I didn't see a link anywhere on your blog! Anyway...I came across your blog by accident actually. I am friends with Jen & Carin Fischer, and well...Carin follows both mine and your blog. So I clicked on yours and now I'm here to tell you something. When I read your blog the first time, the title was "What Steven Tyler taught me." I was so moved by that post...actually...I was inspired. You see, weeks before the ladies in my church decided to plan a "womens conference" and I am sort of in charge. After reading your post, I decided that we would title our conference "MOVE ME"...and no, I didn't take credit for it :) I even read that post to our women at a recent meeting. So On November 14th...we are having a conference titled Move Me. We have 2 guest speakers and quite a bit going on. Basically we want to be MOVED. We don't want to stay where we are in the Lord. But what we have to figure out is...what is our level of desparation. We claim that we want to be MOVED...but how desperate are we?? I think it was meant for me to come across your blog that day. I just thought you might like to know all this!

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