We all love our children and want what is best for them.
Unknowingly, many parents, with good intentions, miss out on the rich opportunity to prepare their children for how to handle life trials because they are more concerned with protecting them from anything that could “hurt” them or make them scared.
What Isaac and I propose is by far one the most counter-cultural parenting methods. We believe it is biblically based upon the entirety of the Word of God as well as what was modeled for us in the forefathers of the faith as well as almost every generation of the past EXCEPT the last few.
Go HERE to watch the latest PODCAST VIDEO on “How to Parent Through Life Trials and Financial Struggles.”
We get really personal and share about the financial struggles, business failure, miscarriage, and almost losing our house in this episode. It’s raw and real people. Go check it out.
God’s Word instructs parents to teach our children his commandments and experts agree that kids learn best by watching.
In Deuteronomy chapter 6, the whole chapter, God commands us to teach ALL His commandments to our children, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” v.7
God’s commands teach are not just “thou shall not murder” or “thou shall not commit adultery”, although those are crucial. Loving thy neighbor as thyself and loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength are the first and second commandments of the New Testament. The REALITY is that we live in a fallen world and we do have an enemy. And those who do not know the Word of God, and maybe even call themselves Christians do sometimes hurt people when they sin. How we deal with those hurts, those betrayals, the greed, and wickedness of man’s heart IS how we LET OUR LIGHT SHINE TO ALL MEN, including our children because they are with us all the time.
In the Old Testament, the patriarchs would build altars to remind them and THEIR DESCENDANTS of the good things God has done, His miracles. Today, we don’t build alters, and sadly because so many hide the hard things from their kids, the kids don’t even get the benefit of witnessing their parents to walk out their faith as an example to them of what they should do one day if they ever experience a similar trial.
The most powerful way to witness to your children what the Christian life looks like is to live it out humbly and biblically.
Go HERE to my Personal Instagram Account and watch my latest IG TV where I interview my 14-year-old daughter about how it has impacted her to see us share vulnerably with her and her siblings as we walked through life trials and financial struggles.
Many teens say that they can’t understand the Bible and that it doesn’t relate to them. When I was a college-age young woman leading a youth group I heard kids make up excuses for not reading the Bible by saying they don’t have time and that they will do it when they are older when the Bible is more useful to them in making decisions. HELLO?! The Bible applies to everyone, RIGHT NOW!
If kids say that they don’t understand the Bible, it’s the parent’s fault for not teaching it to them.
If the kids say that it doesn’t relate to them, then they have been sheltered from the reality of the world they live in and their parents have not modeled for them how to apply the Bible when things go bad.
Your children are figuring out what it looks like to be a Christian as an adult from watching you. They will NOT be prepared for how to handle life trials or financial struggles on a spiritual level if you do not show them.
This is one CRUCIAL element in preparing children for an uncertain world and equipping them for life.
Imagine how this one shift in parenting could impact the future generations in our culture, in politics, in the families of the future, in YOUR legacy! I truly believe this is why so many young people struggle with an entitlement attitude. They were never taught nor never witnessed how to walk through life trials, working hard and relying on God.
If we all believe that our main collective purposes in life are to know God, make Him known, and to partner with Christ in the Great Commission, walking through hard tribulations and suffering in a way that brings HIM GLORY is the pinnacle. It’s all our calling! In fact, it is God’s instruction to us. And we need to teach our children how to walk through these hard things and show them by doing it. So don’t just brush the financial struggles under the carpet. Instead, work hard to fix them, pray with your kids for God’s provision, and challenge them to have FAITH.
Lastly, many of you guys may be thinking, “WOW, what if the life trial is adultery or some other really ungodly sin?”
If you resolve to be humble and transparent with your children, how much more of an accountabliluty will you be living with to NOT DO those unholy sins in the first place? We should not do them because of our love for God, but if this is also an added motivation, then praise be to God.
I love you guys deeply and I truly care about the legacies you are leaving. God calls us to be intentional, humble, seeking wise counsel, making wise choices, and relying on Him for all things.
Praising Him in the Highs and Lows!
