We all know how important foundations are. If you have any interaction with children’s church, you’d know that fun little ditty: “The wise man built his house upon the rock.” Foundations consist of the basics. From those basic foundations, we can build amazing things that will stand firm. However, we also know “The foolish man built his house upon the sand.”
The houses of both the wise man and the foolish man may look the same on the surface level. But the foundations are built on completely different things. I think you’d agree, that makes a huge difference.
The crazy, twisted world we live in
I don’t think anyone would disagree with the fact that the world around us is changing in dramatic ways and at an unprecedented speed. For example, only a couple of years ago, no one would have approved of a demonic video that personifies a homosexual man who lap dances with Satan and then takes Satan’s crown as his own (for starters). No one. However, now there are many who are singing its praises. This includes a Chicago Tribune editorial and Rolling Stone, just to name a few. And to top it off, there are literally satanic sneakers to go along with the sexually explicit, raunchy video by Nike.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
The biggest problem with this is that the musical artist referenced above, Lil Nas X, has been around a hot second. A couple of years ago, he had another hit song called, “Old Town Road.” For those of you unfamiliar with the song, you must not have young children. We asked Alexa to play that song about a million times over. It was a fun, very benign song that kids loved.
So besides all of the other things in this world trying to indoctrinate as well as steal the innocence of our children, here comes a kid-favorite musician (check out the clear excitement for these kids) who, within a couple of years, turns into Satan himself in his latest music video.
2021 just continues the madness started in 2020, just at a ramped up pace.
The celebration of sin
This is clearly just the latest attack on our children. It’s not as if they haven’t been the target of corrupting influences since the beginning of time. But the attacks now are much more blatant, and they are much more accepted by the general culture. No longer are our children as protected from exposure to drugs, or alcohol, or sex. Instead of those things being taboo and something hidden away from sight, it’s out in the open and celebrated. As an incredible pastor, Matthew Maher, has said, our culture has replaced the confession of sin with the celebration of sin. And that will inevitably call for the judgment of God.
So how do we protect our children from this nonstop onslaught of attacks from the Enemy? How can we equip our children to see through the lies and seek out truth? We teach them the basic foundations of Biblical Christianity. This is the rock Christ spoke of, on which each of our spiritual houses will never fall (Matthew 16:18).
How to spot the lie
Do you know how someone is trained to be a bank teller? They are trained to spot the fake bills by only allowing them to practice with real bills. In the same way, we train our children to spot the lies by only teaching them the Truth of Scripture. Obviously, this is an oversimplified comparison. Of course, we also speak to the dangers around them, but our main focus is to teach them the meat of Scripture.
There are several ways or techniques on how to teach Scripture. However, the main thing to keep in mind is to be intentional. We must talk about Jesus and how to honor Him as we rise up and when we lie down and everything in between (Deut 6:7). Allowing someone else to train up our children in the faith is just not biblical. Church, Christian School, and youth group are all wonderful things and incredibly important, but they are not the ones who are supposed to be providing the main guidance and teaching. We, as parents, are called to do that (Prov. 22:6).
Standing firm against the culture
If I may use another analogy, it’s essentially as if Church, Christian School, and youth group are the drink, veggies, and bread. The home provides the meat or the main sustenance to the meal. When we don’t have the meat, we run the risk of being malnourished. This may lead to a much better chance of not having the strength to fight against the culture. Especially now.
I pray for all of us to be vigilant with our families. It’s so easy to get caught up with the next activity or the next video or the next whatever. Believe me, I know. I completely understand and have fallen prey to the next pressing activity while disregarding time in Scripture with our family. There’s always something to distract us. But we need to make training up our children a priority, so that we may establish their foundation in Christ. If we don’t, I know something else that will be glad to take over our job of training up our children and establishing them in the culture’s foundation.
We need warriors who will stand firm for Christ, who know His Word, and love Jesus. It couldn’t be a more important time.
