Praying Prayerfulness For Our Children

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." (Ephesians 6:18, NIV)

I sometimes find myself complaining loudly to my children that they complain too much.  At other times, I've noticed that I argue with them about how much they argue.  I know this is ineffective and even hypocritical, but it's amazing how easily I fall into the same old patterns again and again.  Why?  Because Satan loves to see me stumble and fall flat on my face, and so he keeps setting the same traps and I keep falling into them.

The call to prayer in Ephesians 6:18 comes in the context of a passage on spiritual warfare, which in emphasized here by the call to "be alert."  1 Peter 5:7-8 has a very similar and even more sobering call: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  Again, we see a call to prayerfulness ("Cast all your anxiety on him") with a call to be alert because of the reality of spiritual warfare.

Click to read more ...

Praying for Honesty and Integrity

By Jason (Connecting to Impact)

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people." –Spencer Johnson

I doubt there are very many parents out there who would fight for their kids to become dishonest, immoral adults, but sometimes in our push to get them into high achievement we send the wrong messages.

"How about this scripture, “What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar." (Proverbs 19:22)

"Or what about this verse earlier in the chapter, “Better the poor whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse." (Proverbs 19:1)

We might repeat the oft mentioned motto, “honesty is the best policy” while displaying a different, but nevertheless potent fact: sometimes compromise gets you gain quicker than honesty.

Click to read more ...

Praying for Purity

By Nick (My Experience As...)

What could be more sweet, innocent, and pure than a newborn child?  It seems that purity starts being threatened shortly after that first breath though. 

We work to protect our children.  We baby proof houses by covering all the outlets, putting parent proof locks on cabinets and everything else short of wrapping the world in bubble wrap. Despite all our efforts, it isn’t long after the sweet little baby starts life that we make our first panicked trip to the ER because of a minor head wound.  Did you realize even a small cut on the face bleeds a LOT?  I didn’t know kids had so much blood in them.

Despite all our efforts to protect our kids they get hurt, which is especially scary when I think of how little is done to protect the purity of a child.  Even if you remove the smut and garbage from your house, it is everywhere around them. The safety of prime time TV disappeared when I was a kid.  Even the shows on popular kids’ stations are pushing the envelope. Not long ago a popular show decided to roll with it when the lead actress got pregnant, following on the heels of Juno they went for the pregnant teen story line. While the show was cancelled before following that story line, it is clear that the networks don’t see a problem and will gladly take that risk again.

Click to read more ...

Praying To Have a Servant's Heart

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

Loving Others in a Age of Self-Indulgence

"...not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers,
but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man." (Ephesians 6:6-7)

Sometimes I get frustrated with how much my children complain.  At times, it seems like no matter what we are doing or have done, they will find some problem or shortcoming and will launch into complaining and whining.  Then, this morning, I woke up, healthy and surrounded by my family, and I got out of bed, irritated at my sore back and the fact that it was Monday morning.  I was blessed to wake up in a nice home, and I walked downstairs grumbling in my mind because the kitchen wasn't perfectly clean.  Where do my children get this self-pitying, self-indulgent whining?  I guess I don't have to go very far to find that answer.

The problem with self-pitying complaining is that it focuses all of our attention on ourselves and keeps us from looking at and serving the real needs of others.  It is pretty tough to love God and love others when my focus is so strongly pulled toward my own "problems."  Growing up in the 70's, I remember well the old children's television theme song- "The most important person in the whole wide world is you and you hardly even know you."

Click to read more ...

Praying For Respect

By Jason (Connecting to Impact)

Respect carries many different meanings depending on who or what group you’re talking to. To one, it may mean that a child never addresses an adult by their first name, but rather with Mr., Mrs., or Ms.  To another, it may mean consistent eye contact. Another might see a weak handshake as a sign or disrespect.

See what I mean? There are lots of definitions, but when we are teaching our children respect, I think we can focus on honoring others above themselves.

"Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king." (1 Peter 2:17)

I’m sure we’ve all witnessed kids who disrespectfully mock their parents to their face. It’s tremendously wrong. And if it begins there at home, the disrespect will expand to other authority figures and even God.

Respect is that important. Thankfully, my wife and I decided long ago that we would have each other’s backs and if we saw anything that looked disrespectful we would call our kids on it.

Click to read more ...