Cultural Obstacles and Influences
Recently, I served on a parenting panel to discuss what else? Parenting. One insightful question for the panel was this: “What do you think is the biggest obstacle children are facing in trying to maintain their Christian walk in the world.”
I summed up my answer with a few cultural temptations that I believe our youth are facing:
In a word, an inauthentic faith modeled in our homes or modeled by Christian leaders. There’s nothing new about this one. Your church, Sunday School, youth group, or Christian school are no substitute for a parent’s strong faith modeled in the home. As we live our imperfect lives, we model a saving faith by relying on the Holy Spirit. God’s design in Deuteronomy 6: 5-9 is a blueprint for parents in teaching children to love God and in talking about this love when we sit in our homes (mealtimes, etc.), when we walk by the way (nature walks and carpool), when we lie down (naptime and nighttime prayers/Bible stories), and when we rise up (start the day with prayer). While we will never get this down perfectly, (we all are imperfect parents and people), we can model an apology and respond by pointing children to a perfect God who sent His perfect Son to redeem us. An authentic faith modeled by parents in a Christ-centered home is better than the posture of pretense.
While temptations arise from technological advancements and make parenting in this era more challenging, these temptations present an opportunity for authenticity in modeling screen usage. At the appropriate age and time, share and discuss how you guard your heart and mind from the negative impact of screens. How are you modeling for your children? Years before they acquire a device, they are watching you. Be a tech-wise parent by seeking the Lord in this area and follow through with your convictions by modeling.
Pace of life, the pressure to keep up, an entitlement mentality – busyness and wants. Making the hard and best decisions for your family, letting go of the good and better things realizing that calendaring needs to be intentional with your family’s priorities in mind. That’s why I think a family mission statement or core value statements are a good thing to write out. As a Christian parent leading your family, you need to be okay with being different.
As “Miss Pat” says, “It’s not the parent’s responsibility to have godly children. It’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure their children have godly parents.” Model your faith.
As you parent your children, there will be times of great sorrow and immense joy. We live in a fallen world that is affected by original sin. The bottom line is that God loved us enough to do the hard and loving thing in redeeming us by sending His Son to the cross while enduring the sadness and sorrow of that Good Friday. Yes, He fore-knew the outcome; He designed it, and He saw every drop of blood. And yet, He loved us enough to do the hard thing. This wasn’t God’s plan B. He orchestrated it before He brought forth the foundation of the world.
In your parenting, love your children enough to do the hard things. Disciplining will incur a cost. It will hurt your heart to take away car keys; to say no to a smart phone until your child is ___ yrs. old, to say no to attending a party, or yes by giving a life-lesson consequence that brings you to solitude in your bedroom with a good cry. Dear parent, do this out of love for your child.
Remember, God sent His Son to endure a horrific death and consequently, experience an unexplainable grief in order that HIS ultimate message of LOVE was shown to you and me, and the Gospel was sent forth to all nations. Live the gospel message of John 3:16 in your home and point your children to the greatest LOVE story ever told. Blessed Easter to you and your family!
