Don't Leave Your Child Alone with Life's Biggest Questions

I still remember one Christmas Eve when I was in my late teens.

After doing some shopping in Glasgow, I wandered into a bar in St Enoch's Square. I sat alone with a pint, feeling as empty as a beggar's pocket. Then the jukebox played Chicago's If You Leave Me Now. It was one of those moments when a song seems to echo exactly what is happening inside you.

I wasn't depressed so much as directionless. I believed there was a God. How could I not? I'd grown up spending summers in a cabin on one of Scotland's west coast islands. I'd looked into star-filled skies, walked among wild flowers and watched the sea change with the weather. Beauty persuaded me that life was more than chance.

But beauty alone wasn't enough. I needed reasons to believe. I was having a crisis of faith, and there was no one beside me to help me navigate it.

I wandered into a bookshop that afternoon hoping to find something that would make sense of life. It took several more years before I found the answers I was searching for.

Looking back, I often think: don't let your children make that journey alone.

Many parents worry about their children. They worry about exams, friendships, careers and the countless dangers that seem to accompany growing up today. Yet there is another concern that often goes unnoticed.

Many young people are growing up believing that life has no ultimate purpose, not because they have carefully examined the evidence, but because they have never been encouraged to do so.

I once heard of a school teacher whose quiet, capable pupil stayed behind after class. He wasn't failing academically, nor was he causing trouble. He simply confessed that life felt empty.

Surrounded by social media, endless entertainment and constant distraction, he could see no larger purpose behind his existence. Late nights online had drawn him into isolation and pornography. He wasn't rebelling against anything in particular. He was starving for meaning.

His story is becoming increasingly familiar.

Rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm among young people have risen sharply. Many wrestle with loneliness despite being more digitally connected than any previous generation. Of course, there are many reasons for this, and no single explanation accounts for every case. Yet it is worth asking whether a culture that increasingly treats human beings as accidental products of blind processes leaves many young people carrying questions it cannot answer.

If we are merely sophisticated biological machines, why should our lives possess lasting significance? If our thoughts are only the products of chemistry shaped by survival, why should we trust them to discover truth? If morality is simply a human invention, why do injustice and cruelty feel so profoundly wrong?

These are not merely religious questions. They are human questions.

Christianity offers answers that millions have found intellectually satisfying as well as spiritually life-giving. It presents a universe that is purposeful, a humanity made in the image of God, objective moral values, and hope that extends beyond death. Faith does not remove suffering, but it places suffering within a larger story.

Whether one ultimately accepts Christianity or not, surely these claims deserve to be examined rather than dismissed.

That is why parents cannot afford simply to assume that faith will somehow 'rub off' through occasional church attendance. Our children are immersed every day in ideas about identity, morality and purpose. Those ideas deserve to be tested just as seriously as religious beliefs do.

Young people need more than slogans. They need evidence. They need thoughtful conversation. They need permission to ask difficult questions without fear. Most of all, they need adults who will explore those questions alongside them.

One book I would warmly recommend is Is Atheism Dead? by Eric Metaxas. It is not a devotional book, nor does it ask readers to switch off their minds. Instead, it surveys developments in science, philosophy and history that challenge many assumptions behind contemporary atheism.

Whether discussing the beginning of the universe, the remarkable fine-tuning of the laws of physics, the astonishing information encoded in DNA, or the nature of consciousness itself, Metaxas repeatedly asks a simple question: does the evidence really point where many people assume it does?

Your teenager may not agree with every conclusion. That's perfectly healthy. The aim is not to win an argument but to encourage careful thinking.

Truth has nothing to fear from honest questions.

Parents sometimes tell me they are anxious about the world their children are inheriting. I understand that concern. But perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give our sons and daughters is not a list of answers, but the confidence to search for truth wherever it leads.

There is an old saying: 'If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know it didn't get there by itself.'

Whether you find that illustration persuasive or not, it reminds us of something important. Some things invite explanation. The universe does too.

Our children will ask life's biggest questions sooner or later.

The only question is whether we will be there to explore them together.