Fight For Your Children

Fight for your children, it seems simple enough right? But it's not easy, it's hard and it's becoming even harder as our country gets farther away from the Christian values it once had. I see parents around me giving up on the fight for their kids, because it is exhausting and it can be redundant and most of the time we probably feel as if we are fighting WITH our kids, not FOR them.

Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." This verse is telling us as Christian parents that we must teach our children the way they should go. This verse doesn't say 'the way their friends are going', 'the way society is going', or 'the way the fashion industry is going.' It says the way they SHOULD go. This means they're not going to know how to go about in this world and it's our job as their parents to fight some battles for them and show them the right way to navigate in this world. 

For me now, this means teaching my young ones to share what we have, even if parents around us don't teach their children the same. It's teaching them 'yes ma'am' and 'yes sir', even though that's old fashion. It's teaching them that they have to obey me even if they growl at me because they don't want to. I have to fight through these small battles now so that they don't turn into bigger ones later. I have to show them the way they SHOULD go not the way their little minds think they need to be going.

I can already see how this battle for our kids is going to get harder as they get older, but are we going to make them fight this battle alone? Are we going to give up on them and give into the things around us so it's easier for us as their parents?

I beg you parents to fight for your teenagers even if it just seems that you're fighting with them. You're not, you're fighting for them and they will thank you later. 

Fight for your daughters who want to wear super short shorts because 'that's all you can find in the stores.' Fight for her and look through as many stores as you have to until you can find a pair that her bottom doesn't hang out of when she bends over. She will most likely see this as you fighting against her, but you're not, you're fighting FOR her and she will see it one day. 

When your teen boy (or girl) posts inappropriate things or uses his phone in inappropriate ways, fight for him. Take his phone away. He'll be just fine without it. Yes, he will see this as you fighting with him, but you're not, you're fighting FOR him. Don't take the easy way out and say, "Well everyone else is doing the same or worse." You're not responsible for bringing those other kids up in the way they should go, but you are responsible for teaching your children which way is right.

We give up too easily as a society in general these days. We all just want to blend in with the crowd and if everyone else is doing it then it must be the way to go. We as parents think this way much too often, but we can't. Our children think like that too and they need someone to fight for them and teach them that it might not be okay just because everyone else is doing it. We have to teach them the way they should go, not the way they want to go. So, yes it will be a struggle. And, yes, it will seem like you're fighting against them and with them, when in reality you are fighting a battle FOR them; so that they won't have to figure out the battle plan all on their own. 

As parents, let's use all our energy and be completely exhausted fighting for our kids. I'd rather use all my resources now than look back and wonder what I could have done differently. Let's train our children in the way they should go.