Mom Heart Moments #249

I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

MANY EYEBROWS WERE RAISED when we announced Nathan’s move to Hollywood, with people questioning our morality because it is such a difficult place. I did not ask God to send my children into morally challenging arenas, but I did ask Him to help Clay and me build them into godly leaders who would take His light to a dark world. Since they are adults and we have released them into God’s hands to follow the roads He has put on their hearts, I spend a lot of time on my knees every day and ask for God to guide, intervene when necessary, and protect my children.

At some point in the Christian life, regardless of peers, our church’s stand, our friends’ opinions, blogs, or other loud voices pontificating, we must decide who we truly think Jesus is, and how His life and words should influence the way we live and the choices we make. He calls us to live radically, whether that means staying at home with our children or serving Him in the world in some unusual place. We must follow Him, not anyone else.

Jesus, the exact image of God, spoke kindly to prostitutes, offered them a clean slate of forgiveness, and allowed them to touch Him and wash His feet.

Jesus touched the infirm and contaminated —the lepers, the woman who was unclean, the blind, the sick. He looked out on the multitudes not with condemnation but with compassion and told us to pray that God would send laborers into the harvest.

I wanted an Anne of Green Gables life for me and my children that was safe, protected, and always G-rated. But that is not the world God has placed us in.

Have you been tempted to despair or want to hide your children away from the ugliness of the world? How does remembering Jesus’ ways with people and His prayer that we be protected from the evil one inform your thoughts?