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You live in a world that wants to take you and your children captive.  The goal of this captivity is to have Christians follow the ways of Satan rather than the ways of Christ (Colossians 2:8 and Ephesians 2:1-3). In the book, Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd and Margy Tripp give a strong warning about being captured by the surrounding godless culture.  Parents, your children are being raised in a hostile world. For Americans, this hostility has been obfuscated by the past influence of Christian thought.  But this influence has been steadily eroding.

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Our authors are servants in ministry who have first been tested in battle.  Each of these authors has  a proven track record of applying biblical truth to life and ministry.  All of them are parents who have known the challenges of shepherding their children toward Christ. Their writing flows from actual life experience where God's word has been a light for their path. That is what makes this conference special. These speakers know what it means to trust Christ in the heat of battle.  If you are a parent, teacher, pastor, youth or childrens worker this conference is for you.

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Instructing a Child's Heart carries a strong message that parents must be aware of the majority culture and the influence this culture has upon the family. The apostle Paul has a similar concern in 1 Corinthians 15. In the last post we looked at the impact of the culture's focus on parties. This topic may seem too early to address in the lives of children, especially young ones.  After all, your children are in kindergarten or elementary school, not college, where they would be tempted by the "party scene."

It is good to be back with you. As some of you may have surmised, our life as a family has been centered around the surgery and immediate post-op recovery for my wife's brain tumor. The next phase of treatment is about to begin. I have been eager to get back to the blog.  Our family also appreciates the prayers of God's people for my wife, Ruth. I will provide some updates as appropriate. We have been encouraged by the grace and care of our loving heavenly Father. He has caused us to be more in love with him and more grateful for Christ than we have ever been. This has been a blessing to us. And in these last few weeks we have been challenged to see where the real hope lies. Thus, as I finish this series on the hope of the resurrection, I trust that you can see how relevant this hope in the gospel has become to our family.  As my wife has said - God certainly does have our attention.  Hope in the resurrection of Christ has become more precious than I ever thought possible. So, with that thought in mind...

Parenting must embrace the reality of 1 Corinthians 15.  Why? Because there is no other way to give hope to your children.  Hope for this life must come from our awareness of the resurrection of Christ.  This, of course, presents a problem. Children, especially young ones, do not generally contemplate the events of the resurrection.  So how can they know hope in the middle of their lives--lives  that are dominated by the schedules and priorities of daily life?

The answer is that this faith and hope must first reside in you.  Paul says exactly that in 2 Timothy 1:5:

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Timothy saw the hope and faith of the gospel first in his mother and grandmother. How conscious are you of the resurrection?  How much of your daily hope in life is consciously rooted in the resurrection? We are tempted to think hope will come if things go better with schedules and circumstances. While this is true to a degree, real hope comes through practical rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ.  We have been raised to a living hope. May your children see this hope in all that you do!

In a recent post we looked at the resurrection and what it means for parenting.  The reality of the resurrection is what gives the gospel power and provides hope for parents.  But this reality also presents a practical challenge for parents. Parenting has to do with immediate, daily and temporal aspects of life: behavior must be addressed, schoolwork demands to be done, clothing gets dirty, meals need to be prepared, bedtime is inevitable, children get sick. That is why the parenting life can tend to focus too much on performance and circumstances.  But when that happens, parenting skids into a life that lacks hope. To be sure, there is a fine balance that must be be maintained, but eventually a main focus on performance and circumstances will drain hope from life.

Parents often try to defend their childrearing deficiencies by protesting that their situations are unusually difficult or stressful. Parents, I believe you can relate to what I am saying.  When you snap at the children, it is because "things are difficult at work." When you don't have time to play with them, it is because you are worried about the bills and trying to sort out your financial difficulties.  When you are irritated with them instead of patiently instructing them in God's ways, it is because of relational pressures in your marriage that they just can't understand. These are the kinds of "understandable" myths we tell ourselves to avoid our obligation to trust Christ in our parenting.  The attractive route is to excuse ourselves because after all, we are only human--we can only do so much.  A mechanism such as this seems to work until we come to face to face with the example and life of Christ.

Easter Week is a great time to talk about weariness. Christ's words in Matthew 11:28-30 were given to offer encouragement to weary aliens living in a hostile world. Following Christ was never meant to be trouble-free--but it is meant to be restful. Let me explain!

Parenting is a challenging task--at times even overwhelming. Because of this reality, there are countless remedies offered from every corner to make parenting easier and less stressful. Even the makers of the modern family transport, aka mini-vans, have added optional DVD players to help keep children passive while traveling to the supermarket. Yet despite all the advice and devices, at the end of the day, concerned parents are frequently left in a state of weariness. Weary not only because of the trials of the day just finished, but also weary because tomorrow is just a few hours away. In this in-between time, weariness often reaches its peak. The free advice and stress-reducing gadgets offer little consolation in this time. Even Bible verses may seem disconnected from the pressures of getting ready for tomorrow. Perhaps the most discouraging realization is knowing that in the morning you will wake up weary.