Good and Bad News

Dear young moms, I have good news and bad news.

First, the bad news: when it comes to your child’s soul, you can’t trust anyone. Disney is not your friend, and the public library is not your child’s safe space. Neighborhood kids can be a source of worldliness. Cell phones are a conduit of evil. Screens are addictive. Television is filthy, commercials are designed to ensnare, and the shows marketed specifically for children are not innocent. This world wants your child to go to hell, and that’s the hard truth. Now, the good news: Your child can grow in faithfulness to God in spite of the devil’s best effort to devour him. Here are some simple steps.

STEPS:

1. Get over your shock, and accept the hard truth. God told you it would be this way, remember? We don’t have to like it, but we have to live in it until He comes. Quit complaining and start navigating. Take the wheel.

2. Accept your responsibility for your child. No one else will answer for the parenting choices you make- you will stand alone and give account to the Almighty Lord God for every parenting decision. Embrace this awesome responsibility and the blessings that come with it.

3. Get prepared and get busy. You must train up your child in the lost world in which we live. This is a battle, so make a battle plan. Develop a strategy. Gird up your loins.

4. Don’t be distracted. Eye on the prize. Lead your child to heaven, because nothing else matters. Laser-like focus.

5. Be bold. Say no to stuff. When the world offers up something to your child, pray and ask God for wisdom, then choose what is right. Often, you will have to boldly reject the norm. That’s ok; don’t even consider what everyone else is doing. Do right, and don’t look back. No regrets- we must never regret doing God’s will.

6. Accept this: Christians miss out on stuff. It’s ok. In fact, it’s righteous. We are to be different. Peculiar. We can’t have it all. Your child can’t experience it all and still grow into a faithful Christian. Once you start saying no to the world, you’ll find worthy experiences to replace the trash the world offers. God is good to us. He fills every need if we submit to him.

Make sure your children see you walking away from worldly things- our example is the very best way to teach them. Are YOUR movies and books and language and friends and activities godly? They need to be, because your child is watching.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

Now you know the bad news: the world wants to ruin your child. So run toward the good news! When we refuse things that are bad for our families, God fills every void with what He desires. Quit trusting the world, because you can’t. Trust Him. Heaven with our children will be worth it.