When the World is Burning
Trying to raise children in peace can be a challenge when the world is burning down.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Don’t borrow trouble. Today has enough problems of its own.”
Parents, you can turn off the noise. You can choose to listen to encouraging messages and music. You can choose friendships who uplift and motivate the people around them. And in turn be the friend who will rejoice when they rejoice, and weep when they weep.
Creating a peaceful home doesn’t mean you have to live in a cave or be uninformed about the world around you. It just means there is a time and a place for everything that we bring into our home.
Young children don’t need to live in fear of what’s happening tomorrow. Train them to be aware of their surroundings. Teach them how to respond to the world’s hatefulness. But don’t cultivate anxiety and fear where they feel the safest. There will be opportunities in their life to see and hear of the atrocities in this world. Your timing is everything.
This generation of parents are forced to approach their children’s world so differently than the generations before them. Children have a lot of ideological views being thrown at them, and parents are having to decide how much technology should be accessible to their children. We are the first generation to be handed brand new issues that no one before us had to worry about, or consider it a threat to their family.
Parents today have to decide the balance of what information their children should know, at how early of an age, and at what season of life it’s appropriate. Information should be given to them carefully thought out, and incremental.
When the world is in shambles, use a portion of those difficult circumstances to shape their world-view. Teach them to be generous with what has been given to them toward those who truly are in need. Learning how to be joyful while helping those who are hurting is a great way to teach children that the world doesn’t revolve around them.
It’s difficult watching parts of the world in chaos, but I’m positive that we are not the only generation of parents that have ever had to endure suffering for one another. Teach your children to be able to have endurance in hard times. Soft manhood isn’t an option.
While my young boys can sit and have tea parties with their sisters, my other boys are outside using a chainsaw, and chopping wood so we stay warm tonight.
Stay faithful.
Natalie