Don’t flay the sheep.

Theological Predisposition

In seminary, I remember a guest speaker saying that every preacher had a certain aspect of the Gospel to which they were predisposed, and each preacher’s preaching will tend toward similar themes throughout their preaching career. This, he said, was perfectly fine: think of a sheet, he said. and it will stay up as long as everyone keep holding her corner.

I’m starting to wonder if different children have different theological predispositions. There are probably some questions about nature and nurture here. And about what spiritual developmental phase they are working on at the time.

I love reading friends’ facebook postings about their kids’ religious and theological observations, and it seems that each kid has a different part of theology toward which they lean. Some kids are all about grace and gifts. Some seem to be getting close to the heart of questions about who God is. Some are about human relationships. Some are focused on wonder.

Zora, I think, tends to work a lot with ideas about providence. We get frequent questions and observations around these lines:

“The sand on that beach is brown because God made it that way, right?”

“How come God made the snow for the cold?”

“That’s how it is because God wants it, right?”

Has anyone else noticed this in your kids or others, that there are themes that they as individuals turn to over and over again?

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