The Fallacy of “Waiting Till They Grow Up” – Sunday, March 14, 1943
We sometimes hear of parents and others responsible for the guidance of youth, who defer or indefinitely postpone the religious education of children. This attitude is often defended as being modern, liberal, and broadminded, and the explanation usually given is that “We’ll wait for the children to grow up and let them make their own decisions with respect to these matters. We won’t urge our opinions or convictions upon them.”
It sounds easy and plausible, but logic would dictate that if it were good to wait for the children to grow up before we instill in them any religious or spiritual convictions, wouldn’t it also be best to wait until they have grown up before we begin to school them in any of the phases of life—wait until they grow up and let them decide for themselves whether or not they want to be honest, whether or not they want to be law-abiding, whether or not they want to go out unclad in freezing weather, whether or not they want good health.
If, in the name of being modern and liberal, we’re not going to take a hand in the habits and thinking of a child with respect to religious and spiritual matters, logic would demand that we don’t take a hand in his habits and thinking with respect to physical or ethical or intellectual matters—let him grow up before he decides whether or not he wants to go to school, before he decides whether or not he wants to be polite, what he wants to eat, whether or not he wants to respect other people’s property. The fallacy is that by the time the children become old enough to do their own choosing in such things, they have fixed habits, and then it’s too late.
Before a child is out of the cradle his character and his attitudes begin to take shape, and there is no fundamentally vital matter concerning his future well-being that can safely be left entirely until he is able to choose for himself—in matters of morals and ethics, in matters of food and raiment, in matters of mind or of spirit. The training of a child, including the shaping of sound spiritual and religious convictions, can scarcely begin too soon.
It is by early vigilance and prayerful guidance that parents can later send forth their sons and daughters from their homes with the comforting assurance that the influence of this restraining and protecting benediction will continually abide with them: “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.” (Proverbs 6:20-22.)
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, March 14, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright-1943.
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March 14, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,708