To Be Made New: A Time for Self-Reflection

I think what the people of the church need most is time for self reflection.  The problem is most people and family's fear self-reflection. 

In self-reflection we must face the darkness of our souls.  We have to come face to face with the reality of pain in our lives or that constant, aching emptiness.  

We have convinced ourselves that busyness is best.  It keeps us from really dealing with the issues in our lives.  Busyness keeps us stuck.  Better yet, we love our dear friend of busyness, distraction.  Busyness and distraction are tools used against us to keep us from being made new.  

Often times we're not too busy, we're just too distracted.  In a world where our eyes are constantly looking into a screen whether it be a phone or  television, there is no time for self-reflection.  There is no time for stillness  with the music blasting, the TV going and the iPhone always right next to us.  

We scroll and scroll and scroll through news feeds hoping to entertain ourselves or maybe subconsciously, detach from our own world, to keep us from dealing with it.  

Everyone loves to say, we're so busy!  We wave it like a banner to be praised, when in reality it is something we should do away with in order to see our lives and our families healed from years of dysfunction and generational sin.  Yes, I truly believe that if families would slow down, and each would take time for self-reflection with the Lord that we could see family dysfunction healed.  It's there in the stillness where the Lord speaks into our lives, we confess sin to God and it is there where we hear from Him.  

What families need more of is stillness.  They need a mom and a dad who will sit and listen, who will offer words of wisdom and wise counsel.  They do not need more extra-curricular activities, sports practices and expensive gadgets.  What they need is your time.  Unfortunately, in a world run by busyness and distraction parents have become more like chauffeurs then the well from which their child can drink to find things like, spiritual wisdom, guidance and direction.  

Instead, our children latch onto the world that is presented to them.  They run with the crowd of those who are busy and distracted.  They learned from us, what more should we expect?

We wonder why our children have issues with anger, anxiety and loneliness.  However, we never take the time to stop and think that maybe it's because they're crying out for us to guide them.  They're longing for a deeper connection and when they don't find it at home they will go looking for it elsewhere.  Now instead of wisdom being passed down from the generations, our children are being taught by the latest youtuber on what the purpose of life is, or their deep questions about life are being answered by google instead of the generations of parents and grandparents who went before them.  

What if we said, I'm just going to practice stillness each day before the Lord?  What if we made it a priority to place our schedules down before the Lord and to ask Him what He wanted on it?  What if we spent time with our children, having meaningful conversation with them on a weekly basis?  What if we allowed the Lord to deal with the generational sins in our lives and the dysfunction that our family passed down to us?  

I think the church would look quite different, our children would grow to be more confident and satisfied in the Lord Jesus as they observe us at rest in the presence of the Lord.  

"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint"- Isaiah 40:31

Parenting in a World of Moral Evil

Who we have become has much to do with where we have been. 

Lot's daughters spent their time in evil Sodom and Gomorrah. They were exposed to constant evil within their culture and it shaped who they would become. 

We are foolish to think that if we do not choose to protect our children or even our own eyes from destruction, moral filth and evil that it we will not be changed by it. 

Lot's daughters commit a grievous action by sleeping with their father. They hearts and minds had become so tainted by the evil culture of Sodom that the thought of sleeping with their father become a good idea. 

Something happens in a culture when we call what God calls moral evil, something good. It is a dangerous and slippery slope when we start to redefine what morality truly is. 

If man looks from within himself to find morality, he won't find much. Why? Because man within himself is led by selfish motives. 

When Lot's daughters got their father drunk and become impregnated by him I'm sure Lot never dreamt of such a day. However, it happened and much of it had to do with what Lot, as a father, decided to allow into his children's lives. The moral corruption of Sodom shaped his daughters. 

What is shaping our children? Who they will become has much to do with the decisions that we make to protect them from moral evil. If we allow them to watch any movie they like, listen to any music they choose or spend their time with whomever their heart desires then they will be shaped by those things. 

However, if we place our children and our own lives into the household of God, practicing wisdom in what we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear, then our children will be shaped by things like, goodness, holiness and mercy. This does not guarantee they will become sold-out Christians, but it does set the stage for a greater propensity towards a lifestyle shaped not by the filth of evil, but of Godly qualities and characteristics.