About a month ago a really good friend of my was fighting for her life as she was under going surgery. She was having a double masetomy due to breast cancer. She had asked me to be there in the surgery waiting room to pray during her surgery, of which I felt it a complete honor to do so. On this day and the days that have come to follow she is in a fight to win the battle of breast cancer and her life. There are 2 other great ladies within my church that are on this fight as well and it is such a fight but one worth fighting!!
I say all that to say that on this same day I spent at the hospital with my friend and her family, my husband had a not so pleasent conversation on the phone with one of our sons (while we were at the hospital). He did such an incredible job of keeping calm and trying to walk through whatever "crises" was at hand in my son's life. He talked about the proper thing God would have him do in the situation and how God would have him respond and act and I'm sure even mentioned some specifics of God's word. Our son responded with "Why do you always have to bring God in the conversation?" This question really conerned me as a mom. I first began to think well, maybe we as a ministers family do mention God's word too much, maybe we should not do that and back off a little! I thought about this over and over and I think God really began to show me the BATTLE we are in as families. We are in a FIGHT for our families to thrive and live and the enemy, satan, had just thrown a weapon of destruction in the form of a lie. The lie that we shouldn't be telling our son God's word because we will just make him rebel against it, and we don't need to "preach" to him when he is having a difficult time...... and on the lie went in my head.
I say all that to say that on this same day I spent at the hospital with my friend and her family, my husband had a not so pleasent conversation on the phone with one of our sons (while we were at the hospital). He did such an incredible job of keeping calm and trying to walk through whatever "crises" was at hand in my son's life. He talked about the proper thing God would have him do in the situation and how God would have him respond and act and I'm sure even mentioned some specifics of God's word. Our son responded with "Why do you always have to bring God in the conversation?" This question really conerned me as a mom. I first began to think well, maybe we as a ministers family do mention God's word too much, maybe we should not do that and back off a little! I thought about this over and over and I think God really began to show me the BATTLE we are in as families. We are in a FIGHT for our families to thrive and live and the enemy, satan, had just thrown a weapon of destruction in the form of a lie. The lie that we shouldn't be telling our son God's word because we will just make him rebel against it, and we don't need to "preach" to him when he is having a difficult time...... and on the lie went in my head.
As I woke up the next morning the thought of the BATTLE was still on my mind and how the enemy is out to "steal, and kill, and destroy.." John 10:10. My son came down stairs for breakfast and as we normally do, we had our devotion time together. This particular morning, God had me share from the previous days situation. I asked him when he saw a little pink ribbon that some one was wearing what that made him think of and he said cancer and the fight for cancer. I then asked what the yellow rubber bracelets stood for and he said Lance Armstrong and the fight for caner. I shared with him how important it was for me and my friend's other family and friends to be at the hospital the day before and that she was truly in a fight for her life as she was in surgery for about 6 plus hours and all that she would have to conitnue to do to fight for her life. I asked him if he thought it was worth it and of course he said yeah! I then began to share with him that we are in another battle that is a true fight and the enemy is and will do anything he can to destroy our family and other Godly families. I talked to him about how we are on the front battle lines in this war as we are part of the pastoring staff at our church and that if satan can wipe our family out then he has helped to destroy some of the front battle line. I brought up to him the comment that he had made to his father about always talking about God's word. I told him we would always hold God's word up high as the standard as that is our weapon and tool to fight the enemy with. Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Our life verse that we pray for each of our sons is 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 which says, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."
I really believe that we as parents will not come across as "preachy" to our children when we take the time to develop a relationship with them. Our relationship tells them that we love them and desire the best for them. We gain their trust and love as we role model to them that Christianity is not something that we just do on Sunday mornings or Wednesdays, but that it is a relationship with God that we can not seperate from our job, our friends, our family, our hobbies. Christianity is lived out every moment of every day in our lives as we live at home and outside the home. God's word is the standard and truth that we base our lives off of and it is what naturally should come out of us as belivers in all situations. It is the enemies lie that would have us believe we should back down and sugar coat things when they get tough for "fear" we might loose our relationship with our child. This fear is totally rooted in our minds by the enemy as God tells us in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." This pretty much sums up what God would have us do with his words! We are to be diligent to teach and impress (role model) to our children every day as we get up as we walk along the way and when we lie down to rest.
The BATTLE for my friends lives as they/we battle cancer is very worth while and it is something they are doing daily all day long. I would also say that the BATTLE for the family, mine and yours is well worth it and is must be fought daily all day long!
