How to Prepare Your Children for Anything

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Our dear friend, mentor, and retired physics professor Dr. Doug Shields from Oxford, Mississippi, says that, as far as we know, Earth is the only place in the universe where God’s will is not obeyed. The sun and planets and moons and comets and galaxies obey Him. Only we people make the decision to disobey the will of God.

In the 38th chapter of Job, God teaches Job by asking him several questions:

“Have you ever in your life commanded the morning . . . ?” Verse 12

“Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
And darkness, where is its place . . . ? ” Verse 19

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
So that an abundance of water will cover you?” Verse 34

“Who can count the clouds by wisdom . . . ?”  Verse 37

 

Like all of you, I was heartbroken to wake up on Monday morning and hear the news from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Later that day, I was saddened — not by any means to the same degree, but saddened still — when I saw what I would describe as a provocative poster advertising fast food, of all things.

Righteousness exists in the world. Evil exists here, too. Satan wants us to believe that there is a middle ground, a place that is neutral, but Jesus said that we are either for Him or against Him. Nothing is neutral. Everything and everyone either glorifies God or dishonors Him. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral place. In Acts 4, Peter told Jewish rulers, priests, scribes, and elders that there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved than the name of Jesus Christ. In Acts 5, Peter and the apostles told the high priest in Jerusalem that they must obey God rather than men. Paul told the Colossians:

Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Colossians 3:17

Surely the “all” includes what we teach our children.

Again and again as I consider bad things that happen in the world, whether those bad things are a poster in a fast food restaurant, or bad things that happen in a faraway place, or tragedy that happens at a concert, I realize again that Jesus is the answer and the only answer. He teaches us to love. He teaches us how to treat people. He teaches us how to help. Even if we, like Job, have to live through horrible things on earth, He teaches us that those circumstances are temporary and He promises a secure future with Him forever.

Every day in your homeschool, you have the opportunity to give your children real answers to every real issue they will ever face. I encourage you not to give them middle ground or neutral answers, but solid answers built on the Word of God.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them,
may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew
and slammed against that house;
and it fell—and great was its fall.”
When Jesus had finished these words,
the crowds were amazed at His teaching;
for He was teaching them as one having authority . . . .
Matthew 7:24-28

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