Mom Heart Moments #283

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

WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT, this world is a fallen place, broken by man’s sin. I had to train my children with this in mind: someday, they would each have to take their place in the battle.

How is this training accomplished? Clay and I gave our young children a strong foundation of innocence, along with an understanding of goodness, righteousness, and moral strength. We taught them our values and the Scriptures to which those values are tied. We developed their soul appetites by giving them what was good, true, and beautiful.

Our home was a haven of rest as well as fun, with dress-up clothes and lots of pretending. They grew up on hundreds of books that filled their souls with captivating tales of bravery, heroism, faith, and friendship.

As they became older, we gave them freedom to make some of their own decisions, exposing them little by little to the world with us at their sides. We invited people from all sorts of backgrounds over to our home and brought our children with us as we interacted with others in places of politics, the arts, and scholarly studies. We made time for them, mentored them, and took them out singly so they could have their own time of talking with us about all that was going on in their minds and hearts.

Next, we looked for places to send them for training and exposure with others: a worldview and apologetics camp, a discipleship group at church, Bible studies with godly friends, even a worldview class in the evening with their peers in our home.

All of these prepared our children to be ready to take their place in the world. They perceived themselves as warriors, not as refugees who should hide and sequester themselves.

How can you encourage your children to engage in the battle? Plan one thing to do this week that will move you toward that goal.