FAITH OVERCOMES FEAR. Hebrews 11:23 The genuine faith of parents who recognize a child’s value and live consistently before the Lord has a direct effect on the redemption of mankind. We learn the value of faith’s ambitions, choices, and motivations as demonstrated by Moses' parents, who trusted God to find a way to preserve their son when he could no longer be hidden. A life of faith may bring suffering and fear, but God gives the strength to face them.
The world system seems set to undermine parental guidance and authority by passing laws that deliberately limit biblical training, even by parents, if it doesn’t comply with educators' and politicians' demands. There is an agenda being taught in public schools that seeks to make people doubt God or even that there is a God. The false premises of evolution, based on an unreasonable faith in human imagination, seek to defeat the unmistakable evidence of a supremely intelligent Creator of heaven and earth. That evidence can be seen in the unexplainable complexity of the whole universe, from the largest galaxy to the smallest invisible atom.
Every Christian parent must trust God to preserve their children and be responsible to them by teaching them the word of God when they are young. God has a plan and purpose for everyone, and it is the parents’ role to train our children to respect, revere, and fear God by giving them a solid foundation of faith. We do that when we read the Bible as a family, explain the point of the passage in words they can understand, and apply its teaching to the children personally.
Parents’ faith is transmitted to children through what they say, how they say it, and by demonstrating God’s love and the value of a child through personal love and respect. Further, parents’ faith is seen in how they conduct home life, how they conduct business in the community, their attitude toward others, and their consistency in good times and bad. Effective parenting is not easy. It requires planning, preparing, praying, promoting what is right, and correcting what is wrong. Our children need to be protected in body, soul, and spirit.
What we love, and how we live, is evident in what we believe. What we believe is what we talk about. May our children have parents whose ambition is to see their children be effective workers for God in the salvation of fellow men and women. The reproach of Christ is real. It testifies of a coming Savior. It means the person of faith has deliberately rejected a godless world system. The reproach of Christ calls for radical repentance in view of severe warnings of coming judgment.
The faith of Moses began when he saw the faith of his parents and learned the value of being one of “the people of God.” He learned from Amram and Jochebed that he was “fair unto God” – “a proper child.” There was something special about Moses that was important to God as well as to them.
Every Christian parent should, in every way possible, transmit to their children that they are not only loved, valuable, and important to them, but even more importantly, loved, valued, and important to God.
Doubt is not uncommon under pressure from without. Courage in times of fear is when Christian faith is evident. Even when we don't know the outcome of our faith, we can go forward in God's work and raise our children with confidence. A few choices affect only ourselves, but most also affect others. It is essential that we act in faith, for our sons and daughters are watching. Faith and works balance each other when acted on in sincere love. There are results we can only explain as blessings from God.
When our children are at home, we often take for granted that their childhood will always be there. We may forget that we have only a few years to prepare them for the future. Our responsibility is not complete until their souls are well nurtured. The world will beckon them to leave home to be successful. When they develop the desire to go, things become much more stressful. We have to let go when we see them go down the road. The best we can do for them then is to let God take over our worries.
Then we watch, wait, and worry as God uses them without us. Soon, we are surprised to see that they, too, put their trust in God. God begins to use them, and through them, others receive light. We can, in a way, relax, trusting them to do things right. Out of sight but not out of mind, our children, both natural and spiritual, are never far from our thoughts. When we pray, we know that prayer is essential. God is the One in whom we rest our hope. He has His plan for them. The best I can do when they leave our home is to commit them to Him.