Parenting In Perilous Times
By Kim Butts
We are living in a perilous culture during a particularly ominous time. All around us, the Lord and His Word are being systematically dishonored by the society in which we live. If God’s people do not rise up from a bed of sleepy complacency so that the church can reflect the holiness of Christ Jesus, then our children are in graver danger than any of us can know.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 6:4-9). Do you and your children love the Lord as He has called us to? Do you intentionally teach the Lord’s commandments to your children and consistently demonstrate them by your example? Are your children continuously aware of Christ living in them from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep at night? Is your home an expression of your faith to your family, friends and neighbors?
Many Christian homes are succumbing to the seduction of our culture. If you ask children what is most important, you might be frightened at their responses. Parents, the Lord has charged us to train up our children, and though many of us are trying hard to follow the narrow road, Satan is continuously widening it into a superhighway of distractions and evil intent. More and more of us have become weary in well doing, and grow tired of fighting – even when the lives of our children are at stake. We hope that somehow, everything will come out right for them.
Are your children prepared to stand in the face of what may lie ahead? Do they love the Lord with all of their hearts, with all of their souls, with all of their minds and with all of their strength? Do your children speak and act in God-honoring ways? Are they respectful? Do they love others as they love themselves? Are acts of service, giving and mercy part of their lives as the Holy Spirit manifests His fruit in and through them? Do they, or are they learning to draw apart with the Lord in prayer each day? Are they studying, memorizing and meditating upon His Word? Do they have an intense desire to see this lost world reached for Christ?
Our lives as parents have become so complicated! It is easy to let discipline slip when we are tired or when our days are filled with work and other activities. The years of our children’s lives slip by while we wish we had been more diligent about teaching them the commands of the Lord. Perhaps a fresh perspective on what is most important will help us to refocus!
The world we live in is darkening, and Satan is determined to finish off as many people as possible – especially children. With the busyness of our lives, it is almost more than we can do to take the time required to patiently and consistently teach the commands of God to our children. And when the troubles of this world tend to overwhelm us, it sometimes seems beyond our frail abilities to maintain a home that consistently honors Christ. However, the Lord we serve is living and He loves us beyond any evil the enemy has planned for us, or for our children. Because the Lord is able when we are not, we must renew our resolve to go to our knees on our children’s behalf, and to strengthen our determination to raise up a godly generation. The Lord demands total devotion (heart, soul, mind and strength). Many of us have settled for far less! If godly families will nurture godly individuals who will then impact and lead godly churches, then the church will shine into and love our godless culture, and ultimately reach this world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.