9-16-21 This Week in Faith
/Prayers for the Worried Parent
Prayer is the best hope we have to win the hearts of our kids. We spend so much time worrying about our kids. We spend so much time trying to fix our kids. We spend so much time telling our kids what we hope to see in them. Prayer is the most effective tool we have to actually see the souls of our kids’ changed, and the hopes we have for them to love Jesus and his church realized. I am too often guilty of working harder to fix my kids than praying for Jesus to capture them with his mercy and grace. Here are a list of prayers, rooted in Scripture, that we can pray for our kids, even- and especially- when we are too weary to do anything else.
Click here to read the article by Anna Meade Harris.
The Best Thing You Can Give Your Kids
“The world leads us to believe that the greatest thing a parent can give their child is a safe and comfortable life with the best of everything. My adolescence taught me that this is not true.”
As parents, we often want to do whatever we can to ensure our kids’ happiness. At the same time, Jesus tells us that true life comes from more than just being happy. It comes from denying ourselves [our happiness at times] for the sake of following him. Challenge, hardship, and suffering are things that often produce what we long to see most in our kids. Among other things, they produce a life that is utterly dependent on Jesus. This story is a poignant reminder of the power parents have to instill faithfulness to Jesus by declaring and displaying what it looks like for us to decrease, so that Jesus can increase.
Click here to read the article by Molly Yeo.
Trauma and God’s Care for Children
Children have incredible value to God. Jesus displayed this over and over again as he welcomed, healed, loved, protected, and considered the children around him, and even held children up as an example. While it’s possible to go too far in centering our lives around our kids, we can’t overestimate the worth they have to God. This is why it grieves God when children are harmed. And it’s why he calls us to protect, love, and advocate for the children around us. This can be hard to remember when we are just frustrated with a child. But have you considered that child may be struggling because of the effects of trauma they have experienced? God’s heart for vulnerable children should shape our heart for them as well. What are we doing to look out for the children around us? And what are we doing to actively pursue help and healing for children of trauma in our community?
Click here to read the article by Justin and Lindsay Holcomb.
VIDEO: Changing the Identity Conversation
So many of the issues of our day are rooted in a misunderstanding of what it means to be human. This video is a short explanation of why this is the case. And it could be a great place to start in talking to our kids about the importance of the reality that each person is made in the image of God. This informs their understanding of who they are, what to believe, and how they are to treat those around them. This is a short video but he makes a couple of really good points along these lines.
