The
Right
kind of
influence
By Bryan Smith, Ph.D.
I
DO A LOT OF TRAVELING, so meeting new
people is something I do almost every day. Since I
work mostly with teachers, a common first question
concerns whether I have children and, if so, how many.
My answer surprises them all: I have six—five boys and
one girl. “Wow! You must be busy!” Indeed, I am. And,
of course, my wife is busier.
But busy doing what? Running back and forth to
school and going to soccer games? Well, that does
describe some of the details. But that’s not what parent-
ing is all about—or it shouldn’t be. It should be all about
influence. Through all of the busyness, I want to influ-
ence my children. I don’t want them to be influenced by
worldly thinking or godless values. I want to take the
lead and see to it that their lives are shaped by the right
kind of influence.
What does the right kind of influence look like?
Maybe the best way to discern that is to locate a young
person who is living for God, even in the midst of great
opposition. Then we can work our way backward and
figure out what kind of influence shaped that person. I
10
think we find such a young person in the book of Daniel.
And from the first chapter, we can infer the right kind of
influence.
Daniel—A Young Person Living for God
Daniel’s story begins with some of the worst news
imaginable: Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonians
(1:1-2). The king is deposed, and some of the children
of the nobility are taken to Babylon. The young Daniel
is among them. Can you hear the cries of heartbroken
parents as they watched their children being carted off
to Babylon? “Oh, that we could have saved Jerusalem for
our children!” But they could not. The time for God’s
judgment had come. But their lives had not been wasted.
Daniel and his friends are taken away from Jerusalem.
But in the will of God, they are going somewhere—to a
place where they will be used for God’s purposes.
Daniel distinguishes himself as a young man of great
promise. He is among those who are known to be “skillful
in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding
learning” (v. 4).