Parents, Who Wins?
For almost 10 years, I was a youth minister. I have also been blessed wherever I have preached to be at congregations that wanted me to have an active part in the youth ministry. And, of course, I am a parent, so I have a vested interest in the health of young people.
For all those years, there has been something that I have never understood about many Christian parents, and it has to do with their children’s attendance at worship, Bible classes, and youth activities.
When their kids miss things, parents often give an excuse, but, if they would just think through what they are saying, their speech could be turned around totally on them in a way they would not like very much.
- “We hated him to miss the tournament. He’s worked so hard for this.” In other words: we feel no real obligation to have him work on his faith.
- “She’s part of the team, and we can’t let the team down.” In other words: God’s team doesn’t need my child’s input at all.
- “We didn’t like that they moved the game to Sunday, but we couldn’t do anything about it.” In other words: we don’t want to put our foot down and make a sacrifice.
And on and on it goes.
But, parents, there is another way to look at this that I often come back to, and it is one that we have to think about seriously. It comes down to this simple question: “who wins?”
Here’s what I mean: when there is a conflict between the Lord and His people vs. an activity or homework or something else, who wins?
When we constantly make excuses to allow our children to go to the school activity or the outing or whatever it is, what we are teaching our children is that the world is worthy of more of our time and sacrifice than the Lord is. We are teaching them that the world wins and God loses.
We would never frame it that way, but that’s because we have built up the excuse in our mind already. But the fact is, that is what we are teaching.
And, parents, we need to ask ourselves: if we will make excuses for “this,” what will your children make excuses for when it comes to your grandchildren?
The more we allow our children to go along with the schedules and demands of the world, what we are teaching them is that Christianity is not really about sacrifice. We are teaching them that it is okay to do whatever you want to do and then God will be just fine with the leftovers. It’s not about sacrifice. It’s not about devotion. It’s not about our “all.”
Parents, let’s teach our children to put God first. But that begins with us putting God first. Stop the excuses. Step up. Be parents.
And show them that God must win…because God will ultimately win.
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
