What’s a World View?

I remember when I began to notice people using the term world view. I remember that I didn’t have a clue what it meant. And I remember sadly assuming, therefore, that I probably didn’t have one.

Imagine my surprise upon learning that everyone has one! Wow, who knew, right?! Anyway, what I learned intrigued me. A world view is, basically, the  perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. There are a number of factors that affect and form your world view — your upbringing/parents, your education, books you read, movies you see — basically the culture in which you live. And most of that is accomplished by the time you reach 14 years of age.

I was concerned about whether I had a biblical world view, but the more I understood about it, the more relieved I was to realize that my mom, who likely never heard that phrase, had done a really good job of teaching us about weighing things against scripture and … basically, having a biblical world view. (I think she called it thinking Christian-ly.)

When I think that my child’s world view will be mostly formed by the time she’s in her early teens, I’m reminded of the urgency of teaching her early those values I want firmly established in her mind. She’s going to learn someone else’s values and views unless I teach her God’s.

This is why God tells us: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; … Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  (Deut 11:18 & 19.) When we drive to school, when we walk to the park, when we pray before bed and sit at the breakfast table. He knows that kids need to learn his words early in life, before other words take up the precious room in their young minds. Nature abhors a vacuum, so something will fill the vacuum of their minds, and I want to do everything I can to see to it that what’s in there enables them to view the world around them through a God-colored lens.

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