Last Friday I told a friend that my wife is pregnant and his first response was, "I wouldn't want to raise a child in these days." I was a bit surprised with that response, it's not the typical thing we hear.
Heather and I had actually thought of that before we decided to have a baby. Indeed, it seems like children are bombarded from every angle with messages and influences that seek to counteract any glimmer of Christian faith.
Children are overloaded with media which is filled not only with programs that espouse immorality and self-centeredness but even advertisers do their best to use children to sell their products, thus teaching kids to be "me centered."Following the lead of media advertising, children's departments at stores entice kids with pictures and sayings of things that don't reflect a Christian world view. In the kids sections of clothing stores I see kids clothes that say, "Sassy", or "trouble" or have messages of disrespect toward parents, siblings and teachers. On the other hand there's the whole "princess" and "perfect angel"
motif which encourages little girls to think they are the queen and should be catered to by their parents and society. And lets not forget all the "licensed" junk in the kids sections that are connected with magical movies and TV shows.Many toys for girls promote vanity, selfishness and magic, while predisposing them to our sexually explicit society. Boy's toys seem to focus on violence, magic, and self-power. As an adult, I even cringe at some of the despicable pictures and characters in the toy isle.
Last but certainly not least, there's the completely morally bankrupt society we live in. Where right and wrong are subject to one's own opinion. Where it's no longer a shameful thing to have a baby out of wedlock, and "shacking up" before marriage is not just excepted but expected. Where the public schools are centers of liberal-socialist indoctrination and curriculum's deny God and teach kids that faith is just a fairy tale. Where the government thinks they have a say in how you should raise your kids. Yes, it's certainly not the ideal environment to try to raise a child to love and serve the Lord.
So why did Heather and I decide to have a kid in such a reprobate world? Here's just one of many reasons: If Christians look at the world and decide not to have kids because of all the evil then we're surrendering the next generation to Satan. We need to be raising kids who will be able to positively influence society when they're grown just as we are trying to do now. We all know that the non believers aren't slowing the pace of child making. In fact, I predict that by the time my kid is in school it will be unusual for a kid to be born within a committed married union.
It may seem that the odds are stacked against us but let's not forget that we're not alone in this fight, in fact we're on the winning side. Jesus has already won over satan, we're just waiting for the homecoming now! Romans 5:20 says, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" we'll certainly need that grace raising our little bundle of joy for God because we are admittedly incapable of doing it on our own. But we trust Jesus when He says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." and we say with Paul, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
We're looking forward to seeing God override the evil influences all around as we guide our little one to Him! If you're a young christian married couple I hope you'll join us in taking the next generation for Jesus.
