Are you struggling in your Christian parenting journey? Do you feel like every other Christian parent but you has found some secret, easy way to raise their kids to be the people God created them to be? Don’t let Satan trick you! Every Christian parent has moments of confusion, doubt and gut wrenching struggle.
We question rather we are doing the right things or doing enough of them. We wonder if the mistakes we will inevitably make will somehow encourage our kids to reject God. We worry that our culture, our kids’ friends or their future spouses will encourage them to reject God rather than serve Him. We hold our breath at times praying that our kids choose to obey God’s commands rather than reject them as outdated or irrelevant.
It can be tempting at times to give up. To stop trying to do the hard work that is necessary to help your kids build strong faith foundations and develop to their godly potential. It’s tempting to believe Satan’s lies that what we do or don’t do as Christian parents doesn’t really matter because of our kids’ free will or that it’s the church’s responsibility to make sure our kids have everything they need to be strong, productive Christians as adults or that our kids will somehow magically live a Christian life just by seeing it lived by others sporadically.
As strange as it may sound, on some level you need to embrace those fears and doubts. Not to the point where they discourage from doing the sometimes difficult things required of Christian parents, but to the point that you know you care passionately about your kids’ souls. Remember that Satan wants to trick you, just like he did Elijah at one point. Satan wants you to believe you are alone in your struggles to be a Christian parent. I can promise you, there are other parents out there just as passionate and working just as hard to parent their kids towards God as you are. And don’t forget. God wants you to succeed. He loves your kids even more than you do. He wants them in Heaven even more than you do. He is there to support you in your journey.
Have you ever run a long race? I have and honestly I hate running around the block, much less 10k. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me moving forward is that free tee shirt at the finish line. As silly as it may sound, picturing myself showered, fed and wearing that shirt gives me the endurance I need to finish. I will never be first, but I finish and I get the same tee shirt as the guy who won.
Ever wonder why there are so many scriptures about endurance? Because they were written for you. God wants you to know He understands Christian parenting is hard. Really hard. But he also wants you to know that with His help, you can endure. You can cross that finish line. There’s no tee shirt (to my knowledge), but spending eternity in Heaven with your kids, grandkids and other descendants is the best finish line “prize” possible.
Sometimes to endure, we just need to be reminded about what God says about it. I encourage you to regularly read some of these verses. Put them where you can see them daily on your bathroom mirror. Memorize them. Pray them. Your kids need you to endure. So does the Church. So does the world.
Romans 5:3-4, James 1:12-18, Hebrews 10:36, James 1:2-4, Colossians 1:11-12, Romans 12:12, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Hebrews 12:1-3, Romans 15:4-5, Philippians 4:13, 1 Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 6:9, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Matthew 24:13, 1 Peter 2:20 (These are just some of the verses about endurance in the Bible to get you started.)