Parents are notable for the sometimes fierce ways we protect our kids. Stay away from fire! Wear your bike helmet! Don't use drugs! Don't talk to strangers! And that's just high school...
It's not all on the prevention side. We champion the future for our offspring in sometimes measured, sometimes over-the-top, helicopter ways, "I've made a list of college campus visits and drafted some ideas for your admission essay. You've got to get a better internship lined up this summer!"
Exaggerations aside, we're not the first generation to hand-wring over our kids from vulnerable youth to venerable adults. Moses moved an entire generation out of Egypt to seek a better way of life. British parents sent their kids out of the London bomb zone during WWII while Jewish families moved their kids behind false walls, or across secret border crossings to safe havens. As I write this, families are literally running for their lives in the Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, China and so many other troubled areas. We need to pray and support these folks.
Fiction is no better than reality. Blockbuster sci-fi movies like to strike this same chord. Spaceships depart the dying (climate change) or exploding (asteroids) earth, desperate to find an inhabitable solar system for their next generation to thrive. Seats are always limited on these fateful excursions. Who goes? Who gets left behind? They like to serve up no-win, sweaty-palmed scenarios that rival our real world crisis in the news.
Fictional or not, what actions would you take if there was an unavoidable sense of urgency and you absolutely could not stay behind in peril?
1. Protect and reassure my child (niece, nephew, Godchild, neighbor, etc.)What if we were talking about eternity? Life after death?
Death is absolutely unavoidable. Its timing is unknown - it could be any day, any second - and so the need for preparative urgency is extremely high, in the "red zone."
This is what mystifies me. Some of the same parents who have so participatively mapped, guided and supported their kids college or career or athletic prep, take a wildly lax view of the same human being's spiritual status.
"They'll figure it out, there's time for that." But follow the logic. Why can't the same child simply "figure out" school and athletics? There's "time" for that too? "Well," an offended guardian might reply, "it's different. The time needed to prepare for college or athletics or a career is in the midst of an adolescent's formative years. They need a push in the right direction or they may fail - and later regret missed opportunities or bad choices." Would they not also regret the opportunity to have spent eternity with their loving God? Are they aware that there is a choice to be made?
A "spaceship" is indeed leaving this earth. It is eternal life with the God of this universe. There are seats available until departure (John 11:25):
- Reassure your child that there is a God who loves them and has a loving plan for them.
- Prepare them with an understanding of what Jesus taught: Humility, mercy, forgiveness, Grace, repentance, faith. These are all positive ingredients that will enhance every other endeavor in their life.
- Explain the inevitable choice before every one of us, since we have all sinned and need Jesus, including parents, teachers, employers, coaches and pastors. Call out to the Lord and be saved. Romand 10:13
- Take every waking measure of your personal time, prayer, love and attention to make sure your child understands their age-appropriate accountability just as well as they understand their age-appropriate homework. Certainly take no less time than you invest in other scholastics or arts or athletics.
Not fiction: A foreign power will eventually invade your home and my home and will take possession of everything we love, including our children and other loved ones. It is death. Make sure everyone you love will be able to locate and follow the Light of Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:10
"It has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
2 comments:
So true. I've heard too many times people will wait until they are older to get right with God. But there is so much they miss, and many miss the ship.
Amen. Now is the time of Salvation. Isaiah 49:8
Post a Comment