Teach Your Children Not to Fear

As a kid, I was a member of the Girl Scouts. The first level is called the “Brownies.” Our troop of girls was very young, around seven and eight years old. One Saturday we went to a Girl Scout Campground to a large cabin surrounded by heavily forested acreage. My mother came along to help with the activities; she brought my three-year-old sister with her.

A friend and I wanted to go walk the dirt trails around the cabin. Mom said, “OK, but take your sister with you.” My friend and I set off, each one of us holding one of my sister’s hands. We were away for about 20 to 30 minutes. Upon our return Mom asked, “Where’s your sister?”

I had no idea. I had forgotten she was with me.

Mom chastised me, “I told you to watch her!”

Mom ran quickly into the woods frantically calling my sister’s name. She found her, my innocent little sister who had trusted me.

That episode in my life and my mother’s was a bit traumatizing; neither of us ever forgot it.

Our children are a heritage from the Lord. They are His favor poured out upon us. The children are our continuation of who we are long after we are gone. The children of believers carry the mantle of Christ to the generation to follow after them. (Psalm 127:3-5)

But what are our children learning during this time of pandemic, unrest, rioting?

Are they learning to live in fear?

Or are they learning that God is in control and will never leave them nor forsake them? (Isaiah 41:10) (Hebrews 13:5)

But the mantle must still be passed, just as the mantle of Elijah was passed to Elisha, his successor. (1Kings 19:19)

What will they pass on? Fear? Fear is of the darkness. It is not of God. (2Timothy 1:7)

Lord Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” (Matthew 19:14) This is the first step. Bring your kids to Christ for all things.

Teach them to pray, as Lord Jesus taught us to pray.

Teach them to trust in God no matter what we go through, because life is tough. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Teach them to read the Word and apply it to their lives.

When they grow older, they will not depart from this. (Proverbs 22:6)

Do this in your home daily.

Children across the United States are returning to public school this week. Their teachers are afraid. The children will be taught fear. But God tells us not to fear. This is why children of believers must be taught at home.

Fear if left to fester becomes a weakness the enemy plays upon. It can turn into paranoia. (Mind.org/UK) But the mindset can be overcome with the Word of testimony. Speak to your children about all the things that God has done in your lives—how He has saved you physically, mentally, spiritually. Speak to them of God’s great power and His miracles. Write them on your children’s hearts. (Revelation 12:11) Even write them on paper to refer back to.

Bound for Virginia, In 1620, the Pilgrims landed far off course, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They were sick, dying, tired, hungry, and were dreading the coming icy winter sheltered on the Mayflower. Yet, they endured, for the sake of God’s glory and their freedom to worship God. They brought their children across the Atlantic to an untamed wilderness, arriving with little.

Our American spiritual forefathers left everything for this freedom—freedom for their children, whom they taught at home and kept separate from the world.

The hands of Pilgrim children were not held by the King of England, nor the authorities of Holland, but by Lord Jesus, Who is the Head of the Church through their parents. (Colossians 1:18)

Yesterday I sat and spoke with a friend. She had gotten herself into trouble when she was young. “Everything that led me down the wrong path, I picked up in public school,” she said. Today, she is a godly woman raising two children. She knows the darkness and pitfalls that need to be avoided.

Do everything you can to demonstrate and teach the power and love of Lord Jesus in your children. If we as parents and grandparents do not instill Christ in our children, they will fall to the enemies surrounding us who teach fear. It is up to us adults to take the children by the hand and keep them out of that darkness.

Read More:

PULL CHRISTIAN CHILDREN OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon

Training For Escape

One summer I went away to a two-week Girl Scout camp in Northern Michigan, near Traverse City. The lakes there are pristine and good for many water activities. As Scouts, we didn’t just sell cookies, but also learned survival skills like starting a campfire, digging a latrine, and preventing drowning.

Camp leaders taught us girls swimming strokes, how to tread water for extended periods of time, how to float to survive and how to rescue another person in danger of drowning. It was excellent training which carried into my older years.

The camp also had kayaks, the type used by Eskimos in the Arctic. A seal comes up around the waist, keeping the lower portion of the body dry and enclosed within the kayak. Getting out of a flipped kayak was very unnerving. I was upside down in the water and sealed in. I had to keep my cool to tuck my body forward, pull the loop in front of me, and push my body out of the floatable all while underwater holding my breath, eyes open. This “wet exit” required training.

A believer’s life is similar to learning drowning prevention techniques. It requires training. All Scripture is suitable for training. (2Timothy 3:16)

Training means to practice something until the process is mastered, learning a skill, or type of behavior. It takes diligence and time. One has to set his mind to it and not run away in fear, just as I had to overcome my fear of being upside down, stuck in the kayak.

Scripture reading and its application is necessary for life, for survival. (John 6:63)

One of the ways God speaks to us is through the Word of God. (Psalm 1:1-3)

The Word of God is not like other books; it is alive, supernatural, and its content has come from God, to tell us Who He is. (Hebrews 4:12)

Jesus is the Word of God. (John 1:1-2)

There is no life, no survival without Him. (John 14:6; Psalm 66:9)

Training also means teaching. Leaders must teach Biblical skills to the younger generation, like how to hear from God and follow Him. Without God’s leadership, they live in darkness and will follow any shepherd. (John 10:1)

Just as when a kayak is upside down, without proper technique and knowledge, drowning occurs. But when we practice and prepare ahead for danger, we keep our calm and know exactly what to do. Ask God. Hold to God. Stay in obedience to God.

In the Old Testament, there were three young men who would not bow nor take a knee to what was the religion of the moment, the worship of a newly created image of Nebuchadnezzar. They had already been through many traumatic situations, and The Lord had preserved their lives. Trusting Him, they stood when others bowed. King Nebuchadnezzar had them punished by throwing them into a fiery incinerator, but a fourth man walked around inside with them. The Lord. The three came out of the furnace without even the smell of smoke upon them. These young men grew up learning the Scriptures. Their life-threatened witness changed the course of religious freedom for true believers. (Daniel 3)

In the New Testament, Lord Jesus went through many trials. In the wilderness, tempted by satan, He resisted the devil with the Word of God. He is our example, He would not bow to the enemy. (Matthew 4:1-11) His physical witness produced the fruit of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Peer pressure, political pressures, and spiritual dangers come to believers. Without having received the preparation of training and the knowledge that goes with it, we will not know or even recognize the way out of danger.

To bend a knee or bow to anything other than the true living God, Lord Jesus, His Son, is idolatry. (Exodus 20:3) It is sin.

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

Are you training your children to remain obedient to God, to Lord Jesus?

Pastors—are you teaching your flocks how to follow Lord Jesus even in dark times?

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon