We All Just Click ‘I Agree’

How Practicing the Way of Jesus helps us understand what We Might be Missing

When I was a kid, there were basically two household rules:

Don’t touch the thermostat.

Don’t ask questions when your parents said, “Because I said so.”

We didn’t get explanations. We got vibes. And honestly? That worked just fine until we grew up, had kids of our own, and realized we now are the people saying things like, “Just trust me,” while hoping our kids don’t ask follow-up questions. Fast-forward to adulthood and we’re all still doing a version of that—just digitally.

I Agreed to This…Apparently

Quick poll: how many of you have ever clicked “I Agree” without reading what you were agreeing to?

Yeah. All of us.

Every app you’ve ever downloaded comes with a small novel called a EULA—an End User License Agreement. Forty-seven pages long. Written in a language that feels like it was translated from legal…into more legal. And at the bottom is that magical button: I Agree.

And you don’t read it.No one reads it.You scroll… scroll… scroll… click.

Apple once included a line in iTunes saying you could not use their software to manufacture nuclear weapons. Which feels unnecessary…because if you’re building nukes with iTunes, society has bigger problems.

And thousands of people agreed. Because we wanted access more than understanding.

We joke about that—but it exposes something pretty true about all of us:We’re really good at agreeing to things without letting them actually shape us.

We say yes. We nod along. We mentally check the box. And then we move on with our lives. Agreement has never actually changed anyone. It just makes us feel better about not changing.

And here’s why this matters for parents: the Bible was never meant to be something we simply agree with. It’s something God uses to shape who we’re becoming—slowly, quietly, over time. Not by dumping information into our heads. But by forming our hearts through repeated exposure to His voice.

Which means whether we realize it or not…we are all being formed right now.

By what grabs our attention. By what we scroll past without thinking. By what we return to when we’re bored, stressed, tired, or avoiding responsibility. John Mark Comer says: Nobody lives unformed. The only question is whether that formation is intentional…or accidental.

And that question matters a lot when you’re parenting teenagers who are being shaped by about 4,000 voices before breakfast.

What We Delight In Is What Shapes Us

Before we go any further, let me clear something up: just because something is around you doesn’t mean it’s shaping you. I know this because for years, I have owned gym equipment that has never once changed my body.  I’ve got weights. Workout plans. Workout clothes that suggest athleticism. lol

None of it matters if the equipment just sits there judging me while I eat Caramel M&M’s—which, by the way, are phenomenal.  What actually shapes us isn’t what we possess or occasionally glance at—it’s what we return to. What we enjoy. What we learn to delight in.

Psalm 1 opens the entire book of Psalms with a picture, not a rule:

“Blessed is the one…”

Not because they read the Bible a lot.Not because they own a fancy one.Not because they highlight everything in five colors.

But because they delight in it. Delight isn’t obligation. Delight is instinct.

It’s what you open your phone to without thinking or the thing you talk about when no one asks.

That’s why this matters for teens—and for us. Scripture shapes us most deeply not when it becomes another assignment, but when it becomes something we’re willing to sit with.

Which leads to a question every parent should quietly ask—not just about Scripture, but about everything competing for their teen’s attention:  What is this doing to them over time? Because where you’re planted determines what you produce.

Psalm 1 starts with movement: walk, stand, sit. That’s not poetic fluff. That’s a warning. Because formation almost never happens dramatically. It happens gradually.

You don’t wake up one day and say, “Today I’ll adopt a terrible worldview.” You walk there. Then you stand there. Then you sit down and get comfortable.

And here’s the part that should make parents pay attention: our kids are surrounded by voices. Not all of them are evil—just loud. And loud doesn’t mean wise.

What they listen to long enough becomes what they instinctively believe.

Scripture doesn’t just give answers. It shapes instincts.

Fruit Shows Up…Eventually

Psalm 1 ends with a tree. Not hustle or  effort. Not spiritual performance.

A tree.

Trees don’t wake up and try harder to produce fruit. Fruit is simply the result of where they’re planted and what they’ve been drawing from over time. Which is freeing—because Scripture isn’t trying to make you impressive. It’s trying to make you rooted.

And rooted lives grow slowly. Almost boringly. Over time. Nobody looks at a tree and says, “Wow, look how hard it’s trying.” You just notice that it’s alive.

That’s what Scripture is meant to do in us—and in our kids.

Not make them sound religious. Not turn them into trivia champions. But quietly shape the kind of people they’re becoming when no one’s watching. And the fruit? It comes in season. Not instantly. Not constantly.

So maybe the better question for parents isn’t, “Are they reading their Bible?”But rather: What kind of person is their life slowly producing? Because fruit always reveals the root.

And formation—whether we choose it or not—is always happening.