Turn on the nightly news or click on your favorite news website or app. Scroll through the stations on your car’s radio. Visit a grocery store, a gas station or a restaurant.
The reality is that everywhere we go these days, evil is all around us—in countless forms—and our society has moved so far from God that most of our great-grandparents would be hard-pressed to even recognize it.
Families and traditional family values are increasingly under attack, gun violence and hate-filled protests have become the norm rather than the exception, the education system is rife with progressive and humanistic ideology and expression, and government at every level has never been more corrupt or farther from God.
With front row seats to this moral decay are our children—the ones whom the Lord entrusted to us and charged us with teaching the difference between right and wrong based on God’s Word alone. As our children are being exposed to worldly ways of thinking and living that we as their parents likely didn’t have to contend with at such a young age, it’s our job to ensure they don’t become deceived by the darkness.
Here are three ways to equip your children to stand firm for Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit as they navigate this godless culture.
1. Have Bible-based discussion about hot-button issues. My kids attend public school where, not surprisingly, they’re exposed to a little bit of everything. Lifestyles of homosexuality and transgenderism that as recently as a decade or so ago were widely considered taboo to flaunt are no longer hidden. In fact, they’re celebrated. From day-to-day dialogue with friends and teachers to the now annual LGBTQ Pride Month that spans all of June, our children are bombarded with messages that run in direct opposition to the Bible.
Rather than pretending like these issues don’t exist or trying to protect our children from topics they’re already being exposed to in the public school system and almost everywhere they go, the best thing we can do as Christian parents is to address these issues head-on by a) letting our children ask questions and b) giving them answers that are rooted in Scripture. Ignoring subjects like the ones mentioned above—or abortion, racism, or the big bang theory—is only going to risk our children becoming confused or caught off guard when confronted with them.
Instead, let’s let them know what the Bible says about issues of life and creation and how we’re supposed to treat others, so that they’ll “always be ready to give an answer” (1 Pet. 3:15, MEV) for the hope they have in Christ—which includes a desire to live according to God’s Word.
2. Make church attendance a major priority. It can be tempting, especially in this post-COVID-19 world of easy-access live streaming, to watch church services on a screen as you sit in your pajamas and sip coffee. However, this cannot and should not be a substitute for throwing on your Sunday best, getting in your vehicle and driving to the house of God.
While there certainly may be the rare occasion that requires tuning in to a virtual church service, to make a habit of livestreaming worship gatherings is both shortsighted and downright detrimental to the spiritual well-being of your family—and especially your children.
Just like studies show that most kids benefit much more from in-person learning than a virtual classroom setting, the same applies to church. Children’s attention spans are shorter than the attention spans of most adults, so the chances of them locking in and retaining anything they’ve heard is much greater when they’re in the physical church building. Plus, it’s somewhat rare—even in 2022—for churches to livestream youth services. So staying home usually means your kids completely missing out on worship and teaching that are tailored to their age group and best suited for their needs.
What the apostle Paul wrote some 2,000 years ago—”Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but let us exhort one another, especially as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25, MEV)—is just as important today as it was back then.
3. Pray not just for them but over them. “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayers simply aren’t going to cut it in this age of secularism and moral repugnancy. Our kids need to see their parents down on hands and knees with head bowed before their Creator, asking Him to fill our hearts and our homes with His Holy Spirit like never before.
And while praying for our children when they’re asleep or in the other room certainly isn’t without merit, it’s even better when they can see us seeking the face of God on their behalf. To that end: Don’t be afraid to anoint your children with oil and lay a gentle hand on their forehead at least once or twice a week, as you call out their name in prayer and ask the Lord to protect them and make them willing vessels of righteousness no matter how much the devil might want them to embrace the deception so rampant in this day.
As much as the mainstream news media and liberal-minded social media influencers and politicians would like to convince the next generation of adults that there’s no real power in prayer, we know it’s still true that “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much” (Jas. 5:16, MEV). And nothing can help children stay grounded in Christ like their parents petitioning their heavenly Father to help them fall more in love with Jesus regardless of what anyone else says or thinks. {eoa}
Jared Turner is a freelance writer for Charisma News.
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