TLP 266: Socialize Versus Civilize

Socializing and Civilizing in Christian Parenting

Obviously, in a best-case scenario, it would be great for your kids to be able to cooperate with Christ-honoring individuals and form appropriate interdependent relationships with people who are going to sharpen them and build them up.

Welcome to Truth.

Love.

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Where we use God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents. Here's your host, A .M. Brewster.

To socialize or to civilize? That is the question. My name is Aaron, and I am happy to welcome you today. If you are a returning subscriber, I thank you for your faithfulness and friendship. And if you're new to the show, I welcome you and invite you to reconsider how you might choose to listen to this podcast.

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Defining Socialize and Civilize

Okay, so Merriam-Webster defines socialize as, quote, to make social, and then they define social as, quote, tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others. They define civilize as, quote, to acquire the customs and amenities of a civil community.

And they define civil as, quote, adequate in courtesy and politeness, unquote. Now based solely off the definition, socialize and civilize both sound pretty fantastic, but in addition to the denotative understanding of the word, it's important to appreciate the connotative meanings.

To socialize our children generally has the idea of our kids hanging out with others their age, their peers. To civilize may give us a mental image of a child with a tutor or nanny learning life skills.

And now, maybe after saying that, we're probably leaning toward the importance of socializing over civilizing, though of course none of us would actually say we wouldn't want our kids to be civilized.

The point is, our culture has convinced us that being social is desperately important. There's social media, there's pro-social and anti-social behavior, and everyone knows how important it is for kids to have friends.

By the way, I strongly encourage you to listen to our three-part series about your kids' friends. They may be important, but they can also be super dangerous if we can't tell the difference between a friend and an enemy.

Biblical Socialization and the Danger of Peer Influence

So how are we to understand socializing and civilizing from a biblical perspective? Does God want our kids to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others?

Perhaps.

Does God want our kids to be adequate in courtesy and politeness? Definitely. Those are biblical requirements. Now it may sound like civility is pulling ahead of socialization, so I think we need to refine our understanding of what it means to be socialized.

Listen again to the definition, forming cooperative and interdependent relationships with others. Obviously, in a best-case scenario, it would be great for your kids to be able to cooperate with Christ-honoring individuals and form appropriate interdependent relationships with people who are going to sharpen them and build them up.

But Psalm 1 .1 reads, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. We could say, blessed is the man who doesn't form cooperative and interdependent relationships with the wicked, sinners, and scoffers.

We could say, blessed is the child who wasn't socialized with the wicked, sinners, or scoffers. This is why when I asked, does God want our kids to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others, I said, perhaps.

And this is where we need to reconsider the connotative understanding of what it means to socialize our children. The vast majority of people who are talking about kids and their supposed need to be socialized are talking about children interacting with other children.

Most of the time this comes up, it happens within a discussion as to the supposed downsides of homeschooling. They will argue that kids who spend their whole day with mom won't be, quote, socialized. They won't be forming cooperative and interdependent relationships with children their age.

And to that, I have to admit, I say, good. Have you met my kids? Have you spent any time with kids in the average public school who are your children's age? Do you really want your kids to learn to be like them?

Let's be honest. Most of us hope that our kids will not turn out like their classmates. We're encouraging them to be a light and to make a difference. We don't want them to have any form of dependence on their peers because their peers are, at best, immature.

At worst, they're sinful and wicked and scoffers. I love the way that Dr. Scott and Becky Anuel described this when I interviewed them for episode 82. Now, this episode is not trying to convince anyone to start homeschooling, though the arguments we're making are valid and able to be applied to that.

The purpose, though, of this discussion is to understand that when the world talks about the importance of socializing our kids, God has a very different opinion on the subject. So, consider with me who the most mature people are in your children's lives.

Hopefully, that includes you, your pastors, your other mature family members, other adults at church, and perhaps even maybe one or two older kids at church. Aren't those the types of people with whom you want your kids to be socialized?

Well, that's what God says. Older men are to train the younger men. Children are to cooperate and be dependent on their parents. So, when it comes to whether or not your kids should be socialized, I would argue that it definitely pleases the Lord if they have cooperative and interdependent relationships with people who love the Lord, who are mature, and who will help them grow in their sanctification.

But, and that's a big capital but, it would not please the Lord for our kids to be like all the other kids their age. That wouldn't please Him. This is why civility is so important. To be civilized is to be adequate in courtesy and politeness.

We could easily expand those two words and include all the sanctification lists in Scripture. Love, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience, courage, and the like are all equally important and play into one's ability to, quote, be civil.

Civilizing as the Goal of Parenting

Now, we're going to wrap up here shortly. It's not an extremely long episode. I know it's actually kind of crazy for us to have such a short episode, but there's one more idea with which we have to grapple in order to come to a conclusion about socializing versus civilizing and which one wins.

We know that socializing can be good if it submits to God's revealed Word. And we know that civilizing could be considered the very bread and butter of parenting if we expand it to include knowing and living all of God's truth.

That means truly Christ-honoring socialization is going to come from people who are part of the process of civilizing my children. My children are being well socialized because their formal, valuable, interdependent relationships are with people who are an integral part of civilizing them in the Word of God.

But if the people with whom they're being socialized are not part of the process of them becoming more like God, then that socialization process is no good. So, who wins? Socialize or civilize? Well, socialization isn't always good, but civilization is, as long as we use God's terms.

So there's one point for civilization. But we also learn that our kids will likely be socialized by the people who are part of civilizing them. That means that socializing and civilizing both receive a point.

What does this tell us? It tells us that civilizing our kids should be the goal. Of course, we have far better words to describe that process than mere civilizing. The scriptures call it maturing, sanctifying, or training to live wisely.

That is the very goal of intentional premeditated disciple-making ambassador parenting. And while we and other mature Christians are involved in that process, we should encourage our kids to build valuable relationships with those people.

We should say, to be socialized by and with them. So the answer isn't just that we should civilize our kids and not socialize them. No, in the process of civilizing them, we need to help them not be socialized by the wrong people and be socialized by the right people.

Again, that just sounds an awful lot like parenting. I hope you enjoyed this discussion today and I hope you'll share this episode on social media. Also, join us for our next episode where we want to discuss how to teach your children to interpret their movies correctly.

Summer is definitely a time for movie watching. Blockbusters come out nearly every month, so it would be wise to civilize our kids to be able to interpret and apply them in a way that glorifies God. So to that end, I will see you next time.

Truth.

Love.

Parents is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional premeditated parent. Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.