Why Do I Introduce My Kids to That Kind of Music?

An extended family member teased me about why I introduce my kids to music like The Beatles, Eric Clapton, and Coldplay. Why would I not limit our music to Christian music?

Because the whole world belongs to the Lord. It's his world and the beauty, truth, and goodness in it all come from him. It can be marred by sin, but beauty comes from the Lord wherever we find it. That goes for nature, literature, art, and music. It's all his.

It also all points to the  beauty, truth, and goodness that come from him. In the same way that all the sun's rays come from the sun, all the beauty of the world points back to the one who is beautiful.

We do have to be discerning in some of the content that we introduce the kids to. There are some things that are obscene and never appropriate. There are some things I want to help them think about rather than just keep it off limits to our eyes and conversation like a nude Greek kouros in an art museum. There are some topics best left for married folks.

We once took the kids to the Milwaukee Art Museum. There were absurd things passed off as art in the museum which led to conversations about what is art and what are some modern artists doing in their work. There was also a vulgar painting near the entrance. Nothing to say there except "Don't look." The building itself, though, is a piece of architecture that when we read a book and see that building mentioned, we can say, "We've been there and seen that."


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