There is a false notion that children can be protected from every danger and uncertainty of life. That simply is not true. You cannot protect your children from life itself. The storms in Matthew 7 come to the wise and the unwise alike. Until we go to be with Christ, sin and uncertainty will be a part of life. You cannot promise your children or yourself that unexpected, painful things will not happen. They will. Uncertainty is part of life.
Here are three biblical principles that speak to these uncertainties. Believing them will help you and your family find stability and peace.
The first principle, from Luke 12 and Matthew 6, is that worry doesn’t help. Biblically, worry means a lack of trust in God’s care. It means a life that is dominated by one’s perception of circumstances, instead of the peace that comes from trusting God’s faithful providence.
The second principle, from Psalm 46, is that God’s care is certain. He is our refuge when difficult things happen. The psalm assumes that hard things will happen and that God is our security when they do occur.
The third principle, from James 4, is that we must be conscious that things happen because of God’s will. We must not be presumptuous to the point of thinking that something will happen just because we plan it. In other words, it is God whom we must trust, not our plans.
By putting these three principles together, we have a sure response to the uncertainty of life. Your life and the lives of your children are under the control and wisdom of God.
Do not withhold this truth from your young children. You cannot guarantee that bad things will not happen. You can promise them that God is faithful, that he is always faithful, always good.
2 thoughts on “Three ways to find stability in an uncertain world”
One of my kids informed me, “Mom, nobody can give their kid a bump-free life.” On the other hand, I was thinking about all the men and women coming home from military service damaged; it’s like they all have PTSD. Sometimes very bad stuff happens to people, young and old, military and not. Some people go through life with relative ease.
Things are seldom as they appear. We can not know what is ease or difficulty for another. What we do know that is that we are dependent upon the grace of God and we will not survive without it.