Tomorrow’s
FAMILIES TODAY
Expert Advice for Parents
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n 2017, author Tom Nichols published a book titled The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. Nichols makes the case that we are experiencing “the growth of an irrational conviction among Americans that everyone is as smart as everyone else” (p. 7). His point? We no longer regard the “experts” with deference. And why should we? Television, radio, and the Internet are full of experts who usually have a variety of conflicting opinions. We’re left to draw our own conclusions about who is right and who is wrong, and often it seems we have to become our own expert. But in reality, we’re not the expert we’d like to be. The knowledge explosion has taught us to find our own facts, and sometimes that’s a good thing. The reality, however, is that we all need guidance, advice, and coaching from those more knowledgeable and experienced than we are. This is particularly true when it comes to raising our children. As new parents, we’re fully aware of the fact that we don’t have a lot of parenting practice, and many times we’d like to turn to someone who could offer us good advice. The competing experts on the Internet can’t all be right, so where can we find a genuine expert? The Best Expert If you want to know how something works, you talk to the one who built it. This is why many high-tech firms require their design engineers to sign nondisclosure agreements, forbidding them to share the knowledge of their work for a period of time after they leave the company. They recognize that the knowledge these employees possess is extremely valuable.
24 Tomorrow’s World | March-April 2019
From the Bible, we learn that a Creator God exists. He created the plants, the animals, and us. As the designer and builder of our world, He is the expert. He designed how we are supposed to interact with each other, and how we are to prepare the next generation to live. To ignore His direction and guidance is to cut ourselves off from the best source of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in the universe. How does this apply to raising our children? Let’s consider an example. In Leviticus 12:3, we read that Israelite parents were commanded under the Old Covenant to circumcise their sons on the eighth day after birth. Today, there are plenty of opinions about whether or not circumcision is harmful. A quick Google search shows that there are experts on both sides of the argument. Some claim that circumcision helps prevent sexually transmitted diseases. Others claim that circumcision is cruel and causes unnecessary pain to the little babies. To whom do we listen? Do we ignore all the experts, formulate our own opinion, and share it with the world on Facebook? No. We listen first to the best expert—God. According to His instruction, though it is no longer physically required (Romans 2:29, et al.), properly circumcising a baby boy is not harmful. The arguments of others cannot change the fact that the best expert has spoken. The Bible is full of more child-related direction from the God who created us. Broadly speaking, we are instructed to teach children all of God’s laws and statutes (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). In other words, a big part of our job as parents is to teach our children the application of God’s laws in daily life. If we abdicate or delegate that part of our roles as mothers and fathers,
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