Jesus Prays for His Disciples
"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
When I read this passage from Jesus, I think of raising my children. I mean Jesus was, in a way, raising his disciples. He was training and mentoring them to do a work for him after he was gone.
In the same way we are training and disciplining our children to do the work of Christ and follow his will far beyond our years with them. We pray for protection, safety, and the Joy of the Lord.
So my question is, "How do we raise our children to be in the world and not of it, when they are bombarded daily with sin? How do we teach our children they will be hated by the world if they choose Christ?
I may not be very popular after this post, but I believe so often we want our children to fit in to the mold of the world and we forget what our purpose is.
We need to be honest our kids and let them know what kind of a world we live in. Kids need to be told about spiritual warfare and that there is an enemy waiting to devour them. The devil wants to create a division in the family and he will use whatever he can to accomplish his goal. What God created for good, man has made evil. Sports, music, screens, the list goes on, these things are not bad, but if they come before the Lord they are.
We send our kids into the world expecting them to be missionaries at a young age and have we given them what they need to survive, or is it all part of the survival?
Are we expecting too much of these little people?
Many years ago when children were entering their, what we now call preteen years, boys would go to work as an apprentice. They would work under this employer for many years until they learned the trade and were ready to go off and start their own career. Now days instead of putting children to work in a field or a trade we have created the "teen" years and we have let this be a time when they can try and discover who they are or who they are met to be. For some, they are getting a good education, for others they are learning far too much of what the world has to offer. We have prolonged the years of childhood and what is happening to our kids due to this choice?
13 year old boys were going to war in years past and now they are playing video games! Kids have too much time on their hands and bored children find trouble.
Kids want to be entertained and hard work has become obsolete. Entertainment is everywhere, but what happened to serving our neighbors, planting a garden, watching the grass blow in the breeze and reading a book in the sun?
I am deeply saddened when I see how far we have come from the values of work and family.
When we drop everything to run our children all over the place from event to event they grow up thinking the world is all about them. Selfish children usually turn into selfish adults.
If we raise children to think life is all about them, how can we expect them to serve and work when it has nothing to do with them!
When I read stories to my children about families that had to work to survive, to eat, or make it through winter alive, I think about how strong the core of the family was and how everyone knew their role and was ready to work harder than kids these days could ever understand.
Are we teaching our kids how to lead a family and hold a job? Are we teaching them to just be still?
So many boys are being medicated because they are hyper and cannot sit still, but I believe with all my heart if they had to work hard physically for a cause and they were burning energy they would not need medicine, Now before you get mad at me, I know there are children that need medication, but we are over medicating in this country.
Boys need to move and be physical, they were created by God to work. God created men to be warriors and to lead, and our society is changing boys in a way that in the future may not be good for our country.
Satan knows if he gets the man the family is destroyed, so he starts there. So many homes are fatherless so how are boys to learn what it is to be a man? Mom's can do the very best they can, but they are not dad. My brother and I were raised without a father, so please know I am very empathetic in this situation, it breaks my heart. Children need a father.
Our system is broken and its time we start picking up the Bible. God's way is the Best way. Next, we stop making life so easy for our children. Teach them what it means to work. Parents may not feel popular in the home because they stand up and say no to a new video game, the newest I Phone, or going out with their friends for the evening, but families need to come first. We have to stop coddling and giving in to the wants of a child and focus on the family needs.
As the wife of a police officer I see first hand the disrespect in our country. We need to get back what is lost, and that will mean starting over and evaluating our homes.
We are to be training children to be disciples of Christ that lead the next generation of families. If we keep up the way we are going we will lose our men, which then leads to loss of families.
Jesus was firm, yet loving. He didn't coddle his disciples and make life easy for them, in fact life was hard, but they had to learn not to look at their circumstances, but to keep their eyes on Christ.
Teaching children to keep their eyes on Jesus and to choose Christ over flesh is not an easy task. The world is fighting hard for the souls of our kids, and sometimes we lose them for a time. Sometimes our kids will have to fall hard to see who Christ really is. If falling is what it takes to find Christ then as hard as it is to say, I am literally struggling to type this and saying No to The Lord, then we need to let them fall because in the end, it is ALL about Christ.
Is it better to give your kids an easy life, making it all about them, and in the end they haven't learned to trust in the Lord and have a surrendered life, or make them work hard now, disciplining, and teaching them they will be persecuted in this world, and give them a reason to trust Jesus?
Folks, no one wants to see their kids fail, struggle, and get hurt, including me, but I often tell my husband, "Our kids have life way to easy!"
What is the end goal when our kids are raised?
I believe Jesus would answer, "To make disciples," which means we as followers take the narrow path leading to Christ and stay clear of the wide path of the world, leading to death.
So then I ask, "Are the man made "teen" years worth it, or are we missing the boat? Are we allowing teens to much freedom of self?
What I do know is teens are leaving the Church at an unbelievable rate and I believe Satan is having a hay day with our families. So are we really teaching our kids to be in the world and not of it?
The Bible has an answer, John 17:14-16 "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it."
"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many." Matthew 7:13
but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:14
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