I’m a mother of three girls. My oldest is 12, my middle daughter is 10 and my youngest is 6 and like any mother these days, I struggle with figuring out how much to tell my girls about the world in which they live. While I don’t want them to be naive to the dangers of living in our world, I equally don’t want to make them fearful of it.
Looking at today’s Scripture, we see Paul had a similar dilemma with his young church in Thessalonica…so he sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage them in their faith.
You see, Paul didn’t just tell them to be strong in their faith…he sent someone TO THEM.
Sometimes face-to-face is what we need when we find ourselves in troubling times.
The truth of the matter was, Paul knew the trials were coming. That’s the whole reason why he wasn’t there himself – he had been driven out of the city. The young Thessalonians had seen this first hand and experienced the heartbreaking loss of Paul’s absence.
Paul, in his fatherly like fashion, wanted to prepare these young believers for more trials like this, not to scare them but to prepare them. He wanted them to be prepared for afflictions…not surprised by them.
“In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted…” vs. 1 Thessalonians 3:4
Like Paul, we need to speak to our children about afflictions they may face…not to scare them put to prepare them as well.
While I’m still navigating these turbulent waters, here are a few ways I’m learning to prepare my girls.
It Starts At Home:
We must teach our children that affliction is normal in this fallen world in which we live. Talking about this truth is so important for our children’s spiritual maturity and growth. Discussing it starts around the dinner table or on the way to and from school. I talk with my girls about events that are happening in our town, country, and world. I limit the amount of news coverage they are exposed to, but I allow them to know, without all the graphic details, events which are going on. We talk about them, and I get their opinion on why they think something happened or why a person reacted in that way.
Learn From Those Who Have Gone Before:
I’ve also found reading biographies of various Christians have been really encouraging and eye-opening. Having the opportunity to peer into someone else’s life and see how God has worked in their life through different afflictions helps give hope in our own. Seeing how God used trials and hard times to help mold them into the inspirational Christians that we read about today is so encouraging. Reading about the hardships that others have walked through and how God was faithful to them, gives us hope and a deeper understanding of how God can work through our hard times, too. A series of books I have loved reading with my girls concerning this issue is Christian Heroes Then & Now.
Share Your Own Testimony:
I also share with them testimonies of God’s faithfulness over the years as I’ve gone through various trials. What I don’t want is for them to think that living the Christian life is a cake walk. It’s not. Hard times do come…but we don’t have to live in fear. Learning how to persevere through afflictions helps us to mature in our faith and learn to stand in God’s sovereignty and love.
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We try to always remind our girls that God is always in control even when the world feels out of control. God is bigger than anything or anyone and that we will have the ultimate victory in Him.