There Is HOPE to raise Godly children today

I am a mother to three young children.  As a mom I hear all kinds of advice, some asked for, some not.  Everyone has an opinion of what a mother should or should not be doing.  From the start, once a baby is born a young mother is often overwhelmed with well meaning friends and family {and even strangers!} who begin to flood her with “try this”, “never do that”, “this is the brand of clothing and food choices you should make”, “these diapers leak, those are the best!”  Advice swarms in circles around we mama’s.

As our children grow the advice keeps growing as well.  Everything from potty training {and how long it should take…. or how quickly it should be done!}, when to give a pacifier vs when to take it away for good, education choices, and so much more become topics for advice.  The blogosphere has made the “noise” become that much louder.

It can become rather overwhelming and our desire to hide under the bed and never come out may become more tempting than we ever thought possible!  We just want the noise around us to stop!  We want some time to be still and just think for a moment.

When it comes to our children, we as mama’s want what is truly best for our children.  What is best for our children though?  I have read articles, have carried on conversations, have listened as mother’s of grown children have shared stories of their now grown children and different choices they have made.  Their children are now adults and they are breaking their parents hearts.  Recently I’ve heard conversations of parents saying, “I did not make the church that important as my children were growing and now they want nothing to do with God or the church.”  I have also listened as others have said, “I raised my family in church, we were there for every service, and now my kids want nothing to do with God or the church!”  I do not doubt the heartbreak of these dear parents, and it had me as a young mother on the brink of a break down!

I found myself wondering, “Wait, both of these parents had different styles of parenting….. and neither one turned out the way we long for our children to turn out!  Is there really no hope?”

I found myself crying out to God and saying, “Please, Lord, show me there is hope that these children of mine will grow up to love and live for You!”

Here are two truths God has shown me.

First, Mama, we need God!  I will be the first to admit, I need God’s grace in my life.  I need His help in raising these children!  We need God to not just be a part of our life, we need Him to be our life, to infiltrate it and consume it!  Raising children is wonderful and if God would allow it we would have an entire house full of them, but raising children is also a lot of work.  I need God’s help to do this right.  Spending time alone with God daily is key!  Getting up before my kids, spending time in His Word and pouring my heart out to Him is a must.  Praying constantly for our children is something we need to be doing all throughout our day!

We can eat organically, use non-chemical based cleaners, be as “oily” as the next mama, but friend, what our children truly need even more than all of that is a Mama who readily admits, “I cannot do this right without the help of God!”  I need to let the Lord fill me up first so that I can be the right kind of mama to these sweet blessings.   Our children need to see the importance of God in our lives so they will see their need of Him in theirs.  Our relationship with God needs to be genuine, lived out, not just talked about but walked out!

Second, our children need God!  Our oldest never ceases to amaze me in her perception.  Things I would think she doesn’t notice, she does and she questions.  Just this morning she asked, “Mom, why do people come to church but then stop and just give up?  They just seem to give up on God!”  Yes, she literally asked me that.  She has learned at a young age that she needs God and so does everyone else, so why would people just give up on Him?

Our children may never eat at McDonalds and may have the highest GPA, but if we have failed to point our children to God then we have failed as parents. Our children need to see their need for God!  The world, school mates, television, video games, and sometimes even friends will shout {in both word and deed} how much our children do not need God, but we need to be showing them even more how much they do need God.

We need to be teaching them the things of Christ at home, every opportunity we get, we need to faithfully be at church and actively involved in it, we need to be living like a Christian ought to in our homes as well as when we are out and about.  We need to be showing our children and teaching them about the Lord and their need for Him!  Pray for and with your children.  One of the things my children always hear me pray for them is that they will always walk closely with the Lord and never ever rebel and turn from Him.  I pray this because I truly desire it and also, if/when they are ever tempted to turn from God, I want the prayer their mama prayed over and over to be ringing in their head!  Let your kids hear you talk to God and teach them to talk with Him too!  Don’t just hand them a Bible and say “read!”, teach them to read it and study it!  Have devotions as a family!  Teach them Bible stories, act them out, sing about the greatness of God as a family!

As I have read different accounts of the Israelite’s in the Old Testament, I have seen how this people group went through vicious cycles.  They would follow the Lord and then turn away from Him.  They would see blessings from the Lord but then because they turned their back on the Lord they would see judgments and persecutions, harsh kings would rule, and they would be defeated and enslaved.  They would then cry out to God and He would deliver them and they would follow Him for a season, but then the cycle just kept on going.  Why is that I wondered.  Then one day it was as if the Lord said, “The parents forgot to teach their children about God.  So their children would grow up not knowing God and wanting nothing to do with Him.  All it takes is for one generation to not teach their child about Christ.”

Let’s not follow this pattern!  Mama’s let’s realize our need for Christ and the need our children have for Christ!  Let’s live out our Christian faith, let’s reach beyond the surface and strive to reach the heart!

My children are still young and I am still trying to figure this parenting journey out, but there is hope to raise Godly children in this day and age who will love and live for Jesus.  That hope is called, JESUS!