How to Safeguard Your Children from the World
As a child I always was taught to pray :
“Lord make me a good girl, make me an obedient child, make me a good daughter.”
The prayer was taught by my grandmother and her heart was that we all learn God’s ways and stay vigilant of not becoming like the world. But what it did instead is that it created a conviction in me that I was “like” the world and “needed some fixing.”
It was like me telling God He hadn’t done a good job on me. All my life I kept asking God to make me good and never had the confidence that my prayers were being answered!
As a parent, I realized the struggle I went through and feared my child will have to go through it too, but the sweet Holy Spirit set me free of this trap. “So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; (Genesis 1:27).
I thank God for my Spiritual Parents who taught me Heaven’s Culture and helped me understand my identity.
So instead of teaching my five year old son to pray to “make” him a good boy, I decided to build him by reiterating his identity as a Jesus Boy! (1 John 4:17). Reminding him that he is set apart and not ordinary, and belongs to heaven helps my child to forgive, be gracious, kind, and obedient. (Jeremiah 1:5)
My son knows now he doesn’t have to “do” anything to be good, rather he does well because “he is good”!
Every correction I give is related to his identity. I remember when he was 3.5 yrs old and had once disobeyed an instruction, I had a serious discussion with him. After the correction session and re-establishing the importance of obeying Mama I thought the chapter was closed. To my surprise after 2 days, he asked me if disobeying Mama meant he wasn’t a Jesus Boy anymore. He had tears in his eyes while he asked me that question. Ouch my heart melted looking at him, but I was glad that more than the correction or shouting, all that he was worried about was if his identity had changed. I hugged him tight and reassured him that his identity as a “Jesus Boy” would never change, and hence he needs to walk according to what he is and not what he is not.
I know of so many mothers who are worried about how their children are growing and getting exposed to so many things of the world.
Well, here’s my advice, from one mother to another :
We may not be able to always safeguard and protect them from the battles or temptations they face. But here’s what we can do: Fill our children with the knowledge of who they are and allow them to walk in their True Identity!
Ruta Miller
