Sinclair Ferguson

And then there's the drip feed.

And I think usually the drip feed method in learning something new is better.

And then if I may tell another story,

Our church had a youth staff, youth staff go away a couple of times a year with the young people, weekend away, some of the parents there are chaperones.

One weekend after the youth retreat, this story filtered through to me.

But at the end of the day, the youngsters were sitting around with a couple of the parents who were there as chaperones.

And end of the day, they're full of questions, probing questions.

And one of the parents is answering these questions very patiently, question after question after question.

When the youngsters have gone away, the other parent says to them, how on earth were you able to answer all these questions?

And the first parent, according to the story, just says, you know, all the answers are in the Shorter Catechism.

And I thought that's really impressive and so encouraging to think that here is a document, you know, with...

you know, 100 plus questions.

And it gave this parent the equipment to help these youngsters to think better about the Christian faith.

And, you know, as I've said probably a couple of times in our conversation, to learn to outthink their peers.

And I'm just increasingly convinced that in the world in which our youngsters are now being reared,

The ability to outthink and outlive their peers in a genuinely gracious Christian way will make our youngsters really stand out and point others to the Lord Jesus in wonderful ways.

One of the things catechisms teach us in helping us to think clearly is to realize that that's the case, that actually our youngsters are being catechized by those household gods they hold in their hands, and you see them adoring that household god everywhere they go.

And that household god, in not a few occasions, is actually being controlled by secular catechists, some of whom are determined

to master their minds.

I mean, I remember when some of the gender issues began, my wife saying to me, you know, the word on the street is we don't want to trouble anyone, we're just looking for equality.