You are watching a nature show on television with your child. The film footage is impressive; the narration is interesting, adding fact upon incredible fact.

The narrator then adds another remarkable "fact": "Over millions of years, the hummingbird developed the remarkable ability to fly not only forward as other birds, but to also fly backwards and hover in midflight like a helicopter."

The next day your child comes home from school with homework for science. You notice some charts to be filled in, showing how human beings evolved over time.

What should you do?

Even if your children grow up in a Bible-believing home, in today's world they will be bombarded with the concept of evolution. But won't they just naturally absorb from you the truth about creation? No! Without your consistent instruction and guidance, your child will be taught by default one predominant picture of how the world and everything in it came to exist—evolution.

Convinced of a Creator

Following are some pointers to help your child not only refute the false teachings of evolution, but also become convinced of a Creator who is very real and who should become very real to him or her personally.

1. First, become informed yourself. You are your child's most important teacher! And God intends you to be your child's most influential teacher. But as a teacher you need to be armed with important information to pass along.

Take the time to read or view some of the materials listed under "Some Resources to Help" on the facing page. Your child's teachers at school will most likely not be taking the time to become informed about this information if they believe in evolution, so you must. Some of the books you can find at your local library, or you can find used copies of most through the Internet.

2. Whenever evolutionary concepts are encountered—whether in a television show, in a book or at school— discuss them with your child at your earliest opportunity. If you have educated yourself with some facts and proofs that show evolution is false, you can help your child refute what he or she has just heard about evolution on a level you know your child can best understand.

You can find many ways to teach the problems with evolutionary theory, especially if you are creative. Several important concepts are brought out clearly in the book Darwin's Black Box, for example. These include the principles of irreducible complexity, minimal function and obvious intelligent design.

3. It is not enough to clear away evolutionary falsehoods. You should also fill your children's minds with truth—reading the Bible with them regularly, starting at an early age and continuing through their formative years at home.

Explain why evolution is so popular today. Go through Romans 1:18-32 and explain how the underlying motivation is that people—even many highly educated people—simply don't want there to be a God. They don't want to believe that a higher power has authority over how they should live and what they should do. They want to feel free to do what they wish without the guilt of having to answer to a Creator.

In spite of advanced knowledge in many areas today, God says people, including the modern nations descended from ancient Israel, will come to destruction because they lack knowledge: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). This certainly includes a willing ignorance of the existence of God.

4. While teaching your children that we exist because God created us, it is also very important to teach them why God created us! As you read through the Bible with your child, reinforce the reason God made people with an intelligence vastly higher than any animal—our potential to enter the immortal, divine family of God!

What about dealing with evolution being taught at school? Ultimately, you are responsible for the education of your child, and it is important to know what others are teaching him or her. Start the habit of discussing what was taught in school each day, briefly at the dinner table or before starting on homework. And when it comes to the subject of evolution vs. creation, it is critical that you are involved.

Here are some tips for helping your child deal with evolutionary teachings at school:

• Taking tests in school—where evolutionary teachings are expected to be put down as the "correct" answers—can be handled without violating the student's conscience by simply adding a note at the top of the test page such as "The book says . . ." or "As taught in class . . ."

These few words (or something similar) qualify all the answers that follow as not necessarily being the student's personal belief, but that he or she is merely recalling and repeating back what the teacher or textbook said.

• It's usually best not to start arguments about evolution vs. creation in the classroom. As well-intentioned as this may be, arguing with people who do not acknowledge God as our Creator may only cause problems in the long run. No teacher wants to be put on the spot or proven wrong in front of a class of students.

This does not mean your child should be cowed into silence when directly challenged by a teacher or peers, an issue addressed in the next point.

• Do prepare your child to "be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you" (1 Peter 3:15). This is a principle we all need to be prepared to practice. But being able to answer people who ask us about why we believe in a Creator—or about any of the beliefs we hold—is something that can only happen if we know the facts.

Again, this means covering evolution vs. creation concepts with your child—and reading the Bible—as an ongoing process. Remind your child that he or she is not alone; there are many others who believe in creation rather than evolution.

Even if he or she were alone, this would be good practice in learning to hold fast to the truth even if no one else around us believes it. This is one of those areas of peer pressure our children need help to stand up against.

5. Help your child formulate a list of proofs of the existence of a Creator. To develop a relationship with God and ultimately become baptized and converted, he or she must come to prove absolutely that God exists. For "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is" (Hebrews 11:6).

Start a listing of absolute proofs, which can be added to or expanded as your child grows in understanding.

Preparing for the future

The world around us is rapidly approaching its end. Why? Because it has rejected God. But we—including you and your children—have been called out of that world to walk with our Creator and prepare for the arrival of His Kingdom here on earth.

Parents, God has charged you with the responsibility of equipping your children with knowledge of Him and His way of life. He expects you to help them come to know for certain that they aren't the product of a blind, random evolutionary process and to see the wonderful future He has planned for them! GN