Read: 1 John 2:15-17

Parents are often good at saying “no” to their children.  In fact, we probably focus too much on the negative things our children do rather than on the positive things they do.  Let’s try to encourage them more in the days ahead.  With that said, there are many things in our world and culture right now that need a loud and pronounced “no” from parents when they go against God’s Word, our faith, and God’s created order.  If we do not speak up about the many things we see on television and in our culture how will our children know truth, morality, and God’s will?

John Stonestreet addressed these things in a recent Breakpoint Commentary.  This is what he said, “More and more, Christian parents will need to get used to saying “no” to things that are widely normal in American life, and not just because of the obvious moral shifting happening all around us. Counter-cultural priorities reconfigured around restored loves, renewed loyalties, and redeemed liturgies will earn us some strange looks, especially when it comes to money, to stuff, and to time. The forces that shape most American families today aren’t centered around real needs, at least not spiritual needs. “Keeping up with the Joneses” and “perfecting leisure time” are  much higher priorities for most of us than fostering and nurturing strong family bonds and bringing up kids who know and love Jesus.”

In the last part of his commentary he addressed how the pandemic has offered us new ways to look at what normal looks like in the days ahead.  He said, “Covid caught all of us off guard, but unexpected challenges like it are wonderful opportunities to recalibrate. Now that the pandemic is subsiding, we may want to look carefully at whether or not “normal” is what we want to return to. Or if instead, we should rebuild the structures and habits that make a home a good place to land the next time the world throws us a curve.”  These are good things to keep in mind in the days ahead when we often feel like we are living as strangers in a strange land.  As John tells us in the scripture verses for this week, “Do not love the world or anything in the world… for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, comes not from the Father but from the world.”   

Make It Personal:  How are you and your children being influenced by the moral shifting taking place in our culture these days?  Don’t just turn them loose on devices, videos, and books, without conversing with them about the good, the moral, and the ways of God found in His Word.  May we recalibrate our new normal to put God’s ways before the world’s ways.