The Discernment Gap | Teaching Your Child to Make Wise Decisions

There has always been a wide gulf between the wise and the foolish. AI just makes that gap even wider if you aren't careful.

Good decision making has always been at a premium. ‘Common sense’ isn’t actually common. Human beings have been making bad decisions since Adam and Eve decided to eat forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

The Age of Artificial Intelligence magnifies the massive gap between those with good judgment and those without. AI can certainly do some amazing things. Unfortunately, it can also be used for some not so nice things.

What makes the difference between a good choice and a bad one? Discernment.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)

For Christians, good and evil are determined by the Bible

For most people, good and evil are decided by the culture at large as well as the politicians, judges, and even the media influencers. Nike’s model represents a very modern motto on how to live one’s life, “Just do it.” Some would append the phrase “It it feels good,” to the front of Nike’s famous tagline.

God does not give human beings the freedom to interpret what is right from wrong. Most people don’t know it but every human that ever lived along with every human that will ever live will have to face the scrutinizing judgment of Jesus Christ. For the one who believes in Jesus and has surrendered their life to him, judgment is good news. To everyone else it is a rude awakening and an unpleasant truth they’d rather label a lie or a fairytale.

Since Christians believe that God is real, he is the Creator of all life, he is the ruler of the Universe and the Judge of all that is right and wrong, it makes sense that the Bible is our rule of faith and practice. The Bible is God’s manual for how humans are to live their life.

Feelings are secondary to what is right and true. What is true isn’t determined by majority vote either. God represents a majority of one. He is all wise. He designed the Universe and all of its laws.

Are you intentional with your conversations?

I urge you as a parent to have difficult conversations with your child. Instead of getting angry when your child disobeys or does something you don’t approve of, take the time to ask him questions and honestly listen to your child’s answers.

If you are honest, you learn best when someone makes you think rather than when someone simply feeds you an answer.

If you tell your child what to think, I promise you that she will never learn to own their own decisions. If you are telling them to do something and it turns out badly, guess who gets the blame? In your child’s mind, they will have a hard time accepting responsibility for the result.

Instead, when you and your child encounter questionable situations or suspect behavior, ask your child what they would do in that situation. If they are the one who made a mistake and did something that they know they were not supposed to do, ask them what they could have done differently. If your child isn’t sure, help them come up with possible solutions. Over time, they will learn discernment.

Don’t spoon-feed your kids!

Resist the urge to spoon-feed answers to your child. Too many children’s curriculums in church take a shortcut and just tell the child what to do. Don’t do that.

You want to teach your child discernment? Good. A worthy goal.

Do you know what it takes to have good discernment? It takes making decisions!

I hope your goal as a parent is to see your child succeed independently in life. If it is, the earlier you give your child agency to make age appropriate decisions, the more capable and independent they will be when they are older.

If you establish with your child a history of you listening to them and coming alongside them and being a guide for them, when they get older, they will continue to come to you and see you as a guide when their life gets hard.

Where does AI come in?

Your child will use AI period. There is nothing you can do to completely prevent it. Sooner or later, it will happen.

What do you want your child to do when they do encounter it? Don’t you want them to make wise decisions? Isn’t that the goal of every parent?

Artificial Intelligence is not going away. Some of the harms will be reduced to be sure but in the grand scheme of things, there will always be risk with AI use. How risky it ultimately becomes in the life of your child is largely dependent on your ability to mentor your child and help them make good decisions.

Joseph Duchesne writes to help Christians think and act biblically using Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of a couple of books, The Last Crisis and Discover the One, both available on Amazon.