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HERE’S A HUGE PROBLEM within the Church right
now. Correction, there are a lot of problems in the
Church right now, but the one I’m going to talk about has to
do with the warfare over our children.
Parents line up in spades to arm their children with piano
skills, soccer teams, Ivy League preschools, and designer
jeans. The obsession to prepare their child for the best future
possible is the blinding force behind sign-ups, deadlines,
waiting lists, and stress.
The wrong future is emphasized in this current clash of
culture and the Church. We do everything to secure the
“best and brightest” standing for our children, and then we
fail to train, prepare, arm, and engage in a very real war
being fought for the eternity of these little souls.
There’s nothing wrong with giving our children the best
chance at this life on Earth, but it’s time we, the Church, stop
acting like the only thing we have to prepare our kids for
is college. If we fail to fight even more so for their eternal
life in the Kingdom of God, what good did Latin in Pre-K
accomplish?
Stop worrying about which colleges you want to line
your kid up for, and start laying foundations in a defensive
strategy the enemy can’t penetrate. Begin arming them with
the weapons to fight a very real enemy out to own their
eternity. We’re their protectors, the stewards of these souls
God handcrafted in secret.
The “D” Word
How can the Church hope to engage in the daily battle if we
don’t acknowledge our enemy? The “D” word has become
a word thrown out along with hardback hymnals and altar
calls in this new church era. I’m not saying the Church can’t
stay current, just don’t get so stuck in it that we ignore key
aspects of our faith like the fact that we are in a spiritual
battle—a real battle, with real lives, and with real conse-
quences.
Distractions can stealthily pile in around us until we
are lulled into a day-in-day-out mode of operation. Our
marriages suffer, our children suffer, and our relationship
with God suffers, as we are none the wiser. The war wages
on as we catch up with Netflix and tell the kids to go play
somewhere else.
Please tell me a war—any war, battle, or skirmish—that
ended well if one did not identify their enemy? How would
any military hope to be victorious unless they can correctly,
quickly, and assuredly identify their enemy? Throughout
history, we can see that warriors studied their enemy to
learn habits, schedules, fighting styles, techniques, weapons,
location, movement, and communication patterns. The
Devil needs to be talked about. We need to learn about his
schemes and be actively prepared to defeat him. After all, his
purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy. In case you didn’t pick
up on the severity of his mission, I’ll repeat it: He wants to
steal, kill, and destroy your children.
Steal their innocence, passion, childlike faith, trust, sure
footing, joy, peace, contentment, purity, excitement, happi-
ness, future, and eternity.
Kill their relationships with parents, family, and God, and
their dreams, hopes, happiness, trust, and lives.
Destroy their body, mind, soul, courage, boldness,
instruction, knowledge, faith, and life.
Practical Ways to Arm Young Hearts and Minds
Our kids—tomorrow’s soldiers—need to know their enemy’s
tactics, schemes, and style of attack. How can they be on
their guard if the Devil is never mentioned? Talking about
him will not usher evil to our door. Identify him. Expose
him. And train to fight his attacks.
My kids are not unaware of who Satan is. We openly talk
about our enemy. We talk about his attack plans and his
subtle ways that may not look like the enemy at first. These
ways may be disguised and leave us curious and questioning.
I teach these soldiers to be on their guard and not taken by
surprise by the wolf in sheep’s clothing. We discuss his plans
to confuse, distract, divide, and devour. We discuss our
Savior, His ultimate battle plan, strategy, and His weapons
available to us: a personal relationship with Jesus, God’s
Word, prayer, praise, and fellowship with the saints.
Our children are young, so we arm them only with what
they are strong enough to carry for this present time. But
my five-year-old can rebuke the Devil in the dark hours of
the night when nightmares creep stealthily in to rob him
of peace. My three-year-old loves prayer walks and prays
over neighbors and strangers knowing the power behind his
Savior’s name, Jesus.
My five-year-old even came to us one morning and said,
“One day I know someone might say something to make me
wonder if God really is real, and I’ll know it’s a sneak attack.
Satan is using the questions to make me get hurt, but he can’t
hurt me! I have God in my heart, and He’s more powerful,
and I just have to say, ‘get away from me Satan!’ and ask God
to help me stay strong.” I cover this mighty little man and
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