Air War and Ground War

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As I mentioned in my last post, It Begins With You, an unclogged heart is necessary for developing and cultivating a relationship with Jesus Christ. As a husband and parent, my primary role, according to Scripture, is to lead my family to Christ. The task is difficult at times, mostly because I’m selfish for some reason or another. Nevertheless, this is my role. I am called to be the spiritual leader in my family and make disciples of Jesus Christ within my home.

The family is the oldest institution known to man.

God’s grand narrative of building His kingdom is through families. They pass on His truth and promises from generation to generation. Satan knows this all too well. He knows if he disrupts families, he disrupts the next generation of God’s kingdom-makers. Read the end of Genesis 2 and the beginning of Genesis 3. As you read, notice Satan does not approach Adam to tempt him until Eve comes around as the family begins to take form.

Risk it or not.

Every day we are in a battle against the enemy. Our children are not the enemy, but warriors to be trained in righteousness to fight against the flaming darts of the devil and his army. The devil seeks to kill and destroy what the Lord calls good.

In the movie The Two Towers, part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, there is a great battle scene for middle earth. However, before this epic scene, Aragorn and King Theoden are discussing Rohan’s position and alliance in this battle. Theoden does not want to risk open war for his people; they have been through too much pain and loss. This is a noble gesture, yet Aragorn replies with an incredible line that I believe is helpful for every follower of Christ.

“Open war is upon you…whether you would risk it or not.”

All that we need.

As a parent, this both frightens me and encourages me. God has given us everything we need to fight off the evil one. We need only to turn to God’s Word. So many of us have fought the battle using only the air war approach. We take our children to church to have the teachers in the children’s ministry teach them about the saving love of Jesus. Our children memorize their verses to win AWANAS bucks and awards.

We forget to practice verses with them throughout the week and rush our children into memorizing their verses on the car ride to church. It’s exhausting. Days, weeks, months, and years pass by living on a surface level road to legalism.

I’m not laying this out to judge or make you feel terrible about yourself, because I’ve been there too. Checking the boxes off of my “How to be a Good Christian Checklist,” has led to many arguments, late nights, and frustrating failures as a husband, father, and friend. I believe Scripture shows us there is a better way to leading our families into righteousness.

In Deuteronomy, we see four settings in which we can speak the truth of the gospel to our children.

Moses provides a great outline of what raising the next generation of believers looks like in Deuteronomy 6. This idea was not original to Moses but given to him by God, to teach the Israelites to love Him.

“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord, is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children.”

• “Talk about them when you sit in your house…”
• “…when you walk along the road…”
• “…when you lie down…”
• “…when you get up.”

The ground war attack plan.

What would it look like to put this into practice?

Again, this is a work in progress for my family as well. My kids are crazy. One of them cannot even sit at the table in a chair. He frequently ends up hanging off the edge of the table, eating his chicken nuggets as a monkey hangs from a tree branch eating a banana. My other son will run downstairs, randomly set timers on the Alexa and ask it to play chipmunks songs while he is supposed to be doing homework. My daughter is a little over a year old, and she thinks she has to yell over the other two just for good measure. So, yeah. I know what it is like to live in the middle of Crazy Town.

Pushing aside all the crazy, here are a few things we have begun to put into practice in our home even if the kids are jumping off the walls.

Talk about them when you sit in your house.

At the dinner table, we try to engage our children with questions such as: What was the best part of your day? What was the most challenging part of your day? What can you thank God for today? This helps us and our children realize that we need to come to God daily and thank him for his undeserved favor.

We often do dance parties in the living room. The boys help me move all of the furniture to the walls to create a large dance floor in our living room. We usually use songs from a playlist I put together of songs they sing at church and others that their mother and I like because they have an excellent beat and great message. We dance until it’s bedtime or we can’t dance anymore-which ever one comes first.

Talk about them when you walk along the road.

The car rides on the way to and from school are great opportunities to pray with them and practice verses that you as a family might be learning together. When I take my boys to school, I ask them how I can specifically pray for them while they are at school.

My wife and I have also committed to almost exclusively playing Christian music in our vehicles and home. Some of our favorites come from Seeds Family Worship, The Rizers, and the Children’s CD’s our church has produced. These are great resources to assist in scripture memorization for you and your children.

Talk about them when you lie down.

My boys get just as much excited about doing our family devotions as they do our dance parties. Our youngest son calls them “Family Demotions.” If we forget to do our family devotions my 5-year-old calls my wife and me out on it, so what do we do? We spend the next 5-10 minutes reading from our devotional book and praying with them as we put them to bed. We usually do 5-7 devotions per week. Currently, we are using Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids About God and Science by Louie Giglio. In reading this book, each of us has been amazed at God, as Creator, who designed everything. We have marveled at his indescribable love toward us, His most precious creation.

Talk about them when you rise.

In the mornings, we discuss what we read in our devotion the night before.

I don’t know if I have the time for all of that.

I know, it seems like a lot to do every day, so I suggest to start one thing. As you get comfortable doing that one thing, add another, then another, until they become a natural habit within your home. Give yourself grace as you seek to make kingdom-makers of the next generation.