You watch your mouth when you're talking to them

This summer I overheard a young girl—maybe six or seven years of age—tell her mother a “story” about one of her friends. I kid you not, she told her mother about her friend Sam who ate a bunch of Mentos and then drank some soda and afterwards his stomach exploded. The mother, half-listening, replied, “Oh wow, that’s not good.” Understatement.
Obviously, this girl has a warped sense of truth, and I probably should be bothered by her blatant lie. However, she is just doing what every other young child does: re-telling urban legends, which have been circulating for years. The part of this story that is bothersome to me though, is when I see this same pattern occurring in the realm of spirituality. Countless times, I have heard young men and women re-telling “spiritual truths” from the mouths of pastors, mentors, counselors, etc which should be classified as urban legends at best.
Lines like “God wants me to be happy”, “God helps those who help themselves”, “If I do x I’m promised y” and others of that nature have permeated our culture. And, unlike their equally false cousins, the urban legends, these “truths” cannot be tolerated in hopes that people will eventually discover the real truth as time continues. When dealing with spiritual matters, the lessons we learn as children become ingrained in our thinking about God and consequently affect the natural outworking of our lives. Therefore, any deviation from the truth of God sends our young believers into perilous territory as life continues and they realize the promises they thought were guaranteed by God are mere fabrications of a wishful and sloppy theologian/pastor/mentor/etc. If we’re lucky, they will get angry at the theologian and will begin an honest search of God’s true covenants; unfortunately, though, most of the time the anger terminates on God—the one who was misrepresented from the beginning.
In the battle for young minds, our only hope of victory rests in God alone. Thus, the absolute necessity to introduce him honestly and accurately cannot be stressed enough. Be the generator of young people re-telling phrases like, “In God alone I place my trust”, “God does not promise me wealth, popularity, success, or fame, but he has promised me eternal life and a life-long relationship with him through the blood of Christ”, and “my salvation cannot be bought or earned, it is a gift from God.”
I Timothy 4:16 “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”