Quieting Those Parental Fears
The key to raising kids without fearing what this world will do to them?
This world is becoming hostile toward parents who do not conform to 'its' values. Our kids are in a tug of war as to who should have the final say in their lives. Take the article I read this week from The Canadian Press* that was decrying the move of Saskatchewan to allow parents the right to be involved in decision-making with their child on matters of gender till they are age 16. This follows similar legislation in New Brunswick and Ontario. The legislation simply asserts that educators cannot accept a child’s choice of gender - if they are under 16 - without a parent’s consent. In the article an educator is struggling with how it undermines the full humanity of the child. Cutting through all her rhetoric, the bottom line is a worldview that diminishes the parental authority. Such effort can create fear in parents to take on their God-given responsibility to ‘raise up their children in the way they should go.”
Don’t despair, for we have a solution. The Holy Spirit and his work within us and around us. In John 16, Jesus comforts his disciples that it will be very troubling to stand for a resurrected Christ and a new way of life but he would not leave them hopeless. He promises a comforter: The Holy Spirit. This month your kids will return to some studies on the person and work of the Holy Spirit and I encourage you as parents to stay ahead of them on it. Knowing more about the Holy Spirit is and inviting him into your lives as parents and into the lives of your children is key to living with confidence in a broken world. In the stories this month the kids will learn about Paul and Silas in prison. It is much more than just a miracle that breaks the doors down for it is about thriving in the midst of the chaos. Bullying is all the rage these days and the effort is mostly on stopping it, but I doubt that it will end anytime soon. What we need to focus on is empowering our kids with confidence. Boldness is precisely what the Spirit-filled life brings. The kids will also learn about Stephen’s martyrdom and how the Spirit was at work in that story. You have a great opportunity to talk with your kids about what it is like to believe something and have so many others think you are crazy or even worse, dangerous!
The Holy Spirit is the comforter. He is the presence of God in the very core of our being. If we can grow in our sensitivity to his presence and invite him in daily then we gain a power that overcomes the world. Be a Spirit-empowered, Spirit-led parent who raises kids who are strong in the Spirit themselves. We shouldn’t be afraid of what the world will do to our kids, the world should be afraid of what our kids will do to them.
Questions
Review both of the stories on this month's take homw sheet and ask,
- What surprises in the way Stephen or Paul & Silas reacted?
- How do you feel when people talk to you about your faith? Have you experienced persecution?
- How do these stories tell us to react to people?