Raising American Kids

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We complain a lot in America… most of us have this inborn sense of entitlement… we call ourselves broke when we can’t afford that new car or that trip to the beach. Many times when we profess to not be able to put food on our own tables, we manage to find the money to buy cigarettes, alcohol, tattoos, and hair dye. I am not a legalist… I am not here to say those who smoke, drink, have tats or purple hair are hell bound. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that is so not true.

However, when I can’t afford food for my children… but can find funds for these things then something is wrong.

The thought process seems to be… I can get someone else to feed my kids, there are food banks and food stamps and wic and and free health care, etc. So I will let them do all that and I will use the little I have for these things that I can’t get for free because someone else will pay for my kids food and clothing. I don’t know of any tattoo shop that is going to let you walk in and say, “I really need a tat… but I can’t afford one because I spent every dime I have on providing for my family, so do you have a program for free tats for those in need?”

I know that there are those who truly are in need in our nation… I am not mocking… we live in a dark day. However I don’t believe our need is really food, shelter, and clothing… but more our need is knowledge and right thinking.

Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.

Isaiah 5:13

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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

Hosea 4:6

Our thinking is so out of whack. Our current culture is as backwards as they come. The American idols we have set up, this idea to become the freakish and most outlandish and shocking… and most Americans cheer it on or tune in to watch so they can talk about how outlandish and shocking it is… so that they can by their excuse “to know” give the ratings needed to continue the financial funding.

Our church had a 24 hour prayer time this past weekend and I walked the halls in prayer and entered into the classrooms… when I approached the door of the Toddler room I was overwhelmed. Tears welled my eyes and the heaviness of the Spirit of God weighed on my heart… these kids must know truth. This generation… must be fully equipped to stand firm. It must begin NOW! I entered the Nursery… those new to this world and the welled tears began to fall… we must teach them now. We can’t wait until they can “read”, until we think they “get it”, until they can explain it back to us… who am I to suppose what God is cementing in their soul? I am called to sow… it’s His job to grow and reap.

Are you sowing?

Or are you only focused on what you yourself are  or are not reaping?

God desires His people to be HIS PEOPLE!

Truth: I am blessed. My husband and I are in a day of walking in a reward of faithfulness. I am very much aware of that. Our heart and mind and soul went through a season of great testing. So many times I heard the whispers of hell to run, to quit, to fall away from the faith. However the Word of my God in front of me kept saying…

I AM THAT I AM. I AM GOD. TRUST ME.

We chose to trust truth. To do what the Word said to do. To not listen to our emotions. To walk by faith.

Today I know that God has rewarded my family for that faithfulness… every good gift comes from above, it comes from my Father in heaven. However I am not holding too tightly to them. I love my God because He is my God… not because He rewards me.

Today with every apparent “blessing” I stop and ask.

Is this a blessing from my God or a distraction from my enemy? 

I don’t want to be distracted. I want to keep the main thing the MAIN THING. If I am not being used to bring people into the kingdom, to be the hands and feet of Christ, to teach and preach the gospel… then I am not blessed, but cursed.

So when anything is offered to me under the description of a “blessing” I must stop and ask…

“Father, is this from you?”

I am raising kids in America, but I do not want to raise American kids. I don’t want to raise kids that are only focused on what this world can bring them… I want to raise kids that are focused on what their life can bring to the world… I don’t want to raise another Disney generation that makes their fame off the innocent and trusting and then turns and laughs and leads those that built them up straight down the path to depravity and death.

I want my kids to have eyes for the hurting to bring them hope… not eyes for the desperate to bring them death. Right now I have one that wants to play softball at the University of Alabama while she studies to become a doctor… I pray for her heart every day… I don’t know about the softball thing… it scares me a little… but I pray that God would open doors that need opened and shut doors that need shut in order to keep her in His purpose and plan for her life.

Today I watch her now choosing to serve rather than be served.

As I listen to others grumble and say, “unfortunately I am stuck in the nursery this week” I watch her eyes light up when its her turn to serve. I see her step up and choose to keep her commitment to the adult choir and leave early from the youth or go later to the youth. I see her willingly choose to serve in the 2 and 3 year Puggles club rather than be served.

She can do all this because she feeds herself the Word of God daily. She is full and is only looking for opportunities to poor out into others instead of worrying about what someone else is doing for her. She doesn’t walk in the doors of the church looking for what is offered for her… but what she can offer to others.

You better believe this mother is protecting that girls heart with my own shield of faith and so is her father… we are bathing her in prayer and covering her in our grace and standing firm against the schemes of the enemy who WILL attempt to distract her with the things of this world.

We know this.

I do not ever give a rip if my kids are successful  according to the standards of American success… I just want them to be faithful to their God and His calling on their life… no matter what that is… My husband and I talk… and we can see our Shelby walking out the door of our house at 18 years old and never looking back as she jumps head first into whatever God has called her to… and God has already placed role models in her life to give her vision hope…

Kristianna Puckett, at the ripe old age of 18 years old, was given eyes to see the hurting in Uganda… and she walked out her American door and into a little pink house in Uganda and is pouring her life out for the glory of Christ as the director of Yesu Asobola Ministries

So in her my girls can see that they can be kids raised in America, but they don’t have to become today’s American kids… I don’t want them looking for meaning in life through a job or a college degree or through a man… I only want their worth and meaning to be based on their love for Jesus and their service to Him.

He is key…

All else hangs off of Him…

He is the Root, the Vine, the Tree… we are too abide in Him.

 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

 

I write this from a swank hotel in Nashville… reaping the benefits of a God-loving, hard-working, risk-taking husband. A husband who with every job promotion opportunity has left for the interview with a prayer that if the receiving of this advancement would keep him or distract him from being the husband and father that God has called him to be, that He would shut the door… and yes some doors have been shut… and it hurt for the shutting… but the blessings in our home have remained abundant. Our home is full of peace, love, joy, grace, mercy, hope… and forgiveness.

I almost at times feel guilty about where we are in our life and I look back and am amazed at how God brought us here… and the last thing I want is for the blessings that came to us through facing trials in faith be used by that slimy serpent from hell to distract our girls from faithful devotion to Christ.

Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.

Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. 

Deuteronomy 8:6-19

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