A girl in her late teens sits down next to her mother. I sense all is not well. ‘Mum, I need to tell you something.’
My heart lurches with a familiar parental dread. I’ve been here before with her. More than once. What can it be now? Can it be worse than what’s come before?
Yes. It can and it has. It may not surprise you to know it involves the Internet. The dark recesses of the Internet – commonly known as ‘the dark web’. Where porn is available and, distressingly, could evade the parental app we have relied on for years (parents, be warned – accountability apps can be hacked and our children tend to be more tech savvy that their parents).
Our power is limited
Why? How? I ask. We’ve tried so hard to protect our children, but our power and ability is limited. It’s a hard truth to remember but, as Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: ‘We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness…’
Christian parents, youth leaders, pastors – we are engaged in spiritual warfare. If your children are still very young, please grasp the reality of this now. Be prepared for the fight. Satan is targeting our children and when we wrestle with the evil in this world that is aimed at our children, we wrestle with Satan.
If we look around us, we are raising our children in a godless generation, where self is king, where sin is proudly flaunted and confusion reigns. And this year sees the impending conversion practices ban which could criminalise some pastoral work with individuals, including children, aimed at encouraging them to turn from a sinful lifestyle.
Don’t stop praying
Dear parent, do not neglect praying for your children and asking for wisdom as you nurture and teach them. Satan wants us to be too busy to read the Bible and pray with our children, too occupied to talk the Scripture with them as we go about our daily lives. He wants us to be weighed down with the cares of this world, with worries about finances, health problems and family difficulties.
Satan must be laughing when we’re at the end of our tether with our children, worn down and overwhelmed with the pressures of parenting in this godless culture. But he cannot stop us from crying out as David, the psalmist, did: ‘… I will call to you, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’
When my daughter told me her secret, I asked God ‘Why’? We know that all things work together for the good of them who love God; and that everything will be for His glory. We may never see the outworking of His will, but there is comfort to be had and lessons to be learnt from even the most difficult parenting challenges.
Punctuating my distress was the relief that she felt able to confide in me. It is privilege that she trusted me, her mother, who she often counts as her enemy (I have to remind her I’m her parent first, friend second). It’s a comfort that I must be doing something right.
As an imperfect parent, often struggling through to the close of the day, I get many things wrong – but if my children trust me enough to confide their deepest sins and secrets to me, I hope I am reflecting something of Jesus Himself.
Because, imperfect as we are, whether parents or not, we can come to Him in repentance and confess our deepest sins to Him, our great High Priest. And He promises to bear our shame and take our sin, washing us anew each day.
Through Him we have grace for today and bright hope for tomorrow – and only in His strength.
