If you are like me, you may feel like the bottom dropped out of morality on June 26. But the Supreme Court ruling on "same-sex marriage" and the inevitable head-on collision with the Christian worldview is the climax to a steady course our country has been on for decades.
If we are discipling our children as we should, we will help them to think biblically, applying Scripture to all areas of life, especially complex ones.
Being a mother (and therefore a person of immeasurable influence in the lives of the teens and young adults under my roof), I, along with my husband, want to shepherd them well. They live in a world that is changing at lightning speed. It often feels chaotic and out of control.
But where and how do we begin to guide them in regard to this new ruling? First off, we must talk to them about it, communicating biblically. Staying silent on what has occurred isn't realistic, no matter what your level of sheltering involves. If we don't inform them, they are sure to find information elsewhere. And if we are discipling our children as we should, we will help them to think biblically, applying Scripture to all areas of life, especially complex ones.
1. You were born for such a time as this.
God is the Creator of time. He chose the era our children would be born into, and this is it. The ones in the high chair or learning their multiplication tables will be tomorrow's soldiers in the Lord's Army.
Mordecai told Esther, "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14). We must remind our children that they, too, have a purpose in their generation, a call on their lives to serve God. We want to plant in them a vision of His greatness, glory, and their part to play in history.
2. Put on your armor.
Christian teens will be tomorrow's voices of uncompromising love, holding to unpopular truths. However, we must encourage them that to do this, they need the full armor of God. This Supreme Court ruling is an opportunity to remind our teens of the spiritual struggle present in every situation in this fallen world and how they are to engage in it.
Paul tells us in Ephesians to be aware of the devil's schemes, to stand fast in the Lord's power, to put on the whole armor of God, and to pray. There is a war going on out there, and it is not an aspect of the Christian life; it is the Christian life.
As Christian parents, we want to do our best to produce adults who understand that there are spiritual implications to everything they do, as well as what is going on in the world around them. We want to be instruments in God's hands, to lead and model for them how to exist in the world of the seen but how to live for what cannot be seen or touched.
3. Pray without ceasing.
In engaging in this spiritual struggle against the enemy, we must urge our young adults to be a people of prayer. We must lead them in praying for repentance in our country and God's mercy on us all. They can pray for elected officials and for wisdom and protection of Christian leaders on the front lines of media coverage.
We must also remind them to pray for their own discernment and steadfastness. There are so many spiritual potholes, and often teenagers and young adults underestimate the power of the enemy and overestimate their own strength. They don't flee youthful lusts because they believe they are stronger and more mature than they actually are. We must help them anticipate where temptation to compromise will hit, how to avoid it, and how to cry out in prayer for the mercy and grace of God who helps them in time of need.
4. You must know the Word.
If there were ever a time to urge our young adults to be students of the Word, this would be it. We must communicate to them to be prepared in season and out, with the encouragement to apply their faith to areas of gender confusion, homosexuality, and the true definition of marriage.
Our young adults may have grown up in Sunday school and are familiar with Bible stories and memorized some passages. But if these are only isolated, disconnected facts, they may have biblical knowledge but little biblical wisdom. We want to lead them to have a functional, useful, biblical view of life as they walk and live in the twenty-first century and respond to the key issues of their generation, like the "same-sex marriage" ruling.
A Reason to Hope
I have felt the temptation to fear what the future holds for my children. It is overwhelming to consider what could be going on in our country by next year and even more so by the time our youngest children reach adulthood. The toddlers at our dinner table will not remember a day that same-sex relationships did not just visibly exist, but also receive affirmation and celebration from society.
But God has not given parents a spirit of fear. God is an ever-present Help in our times of trouble (Ps. 46:1). He is at work in every situation, including what happens in the Supreme Court (Rom. 8:28). We do not need to be afraid of the future or despair at our weaknesses as parents, because His strength is perfected in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:7–10) and we have already been given everything we need to do His will (2 Peter 1:3–4). Because of this, we have reason to step out in faith and hope for the future of our children and shepherd our teens with courage and steadfastness.
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