What influences my parenting? Why do I parent the way I do? If we stop and think about it, our reference point for parenting is often “how we were parented” or “how we wish we were parented.” We reflect on the pressures and challenges of when we were children growing up. The challenge in our culture today is that our children are growing up in a very different world even from just one generation removed. Choosing a Christian worldview and Christian values while honoring God with our lives has become an affront to many. Never before in our nation’s heritage has God-fearing been so under attack.
The entire chapter 15 in the gospel of John is referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly prayer. The Life Application Study Bible states “from this prayer we learn that the world is a tremendous battleground where the forces under Satan’s power and those under God’s authority are at war.”
“I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.”
John 17:15 (NLT)
The Words of Christ in this prayer to His heavenly Father makes for a parent’s prayer. In training up our children, we want to help them “resist” the temptations of this world. A resistance cell is the organizing of a group to resist something that is in opposition to their values and well-being. That is in essence what a family unit is. Our culture has changed dramatically in how it views God, His Will and Way. It used to be a “good” thing to go to church and to make good moral decisions. Those features of a Christian nation are fast disappearing and are under attack.
We want our children to choose Christ and His teachings and not to be vulnerable to the temptations that come hard at them daily. They need to know something about resistance, which is not always popular. Our children must know something about an allegiance to God and to depend upon His power.
“By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
2 Peter 1:3-4 (NLT)
Our children benefit in knowing of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Biblical teachings. They can’t navigate life on cookie crumbs. We each as individuals and as a family have a decision to make. Am I going to lead my family to resist the movement in our culture to deny godliness? Am I going to stand strong when the opposition becomes uncomfortable? Ephesians 6:10-11 (NLT): “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.”
