The Most Important Type of Housecleaning

Mar 29, 2016 | Faith

Parents, what you do matters.

While your kids sidetrack you with whines, cries, and temper tantrums, what you do while training them each day is important.  Eternally important.

“Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!” Deut 5:29

I was recently reminded by God how serious He is about things and how essential it is to be a vigilant gatekeeper for the soul of our children. Before my kids were in school, it was easier to see what was God-honoring in our home and what wasn’t. Things seemed black and white. 

cleaningSince they’ve been in school, lines are blurred when looking around at what others consider acceptable, even in the faith community.

Do you struggle with what the culture says is acceptable and what God says? Before you automatically check it off as “no problem, I’ve got that covered, “ take some time to consider what even the church culture says is okay compared to scripture.

In Deuteronomy, God declares what is acceptable and what isn’t. He is clear about what is godly and ungodly. In 2016, God’s standards for holiness don’t change.

Yet culture’s changing quickly around us.  I recently went to a seminar on the dangers of the occult and New Age practices.  I was reminded of the ungodliness around us.  As a counselor and educator in a public school, I see harmful and ungodly practices in many homes, so the information wasn’t new to me. 

But I was awakened to the presence of ungodliness and acceptance of ungodly practices in modern Christian culture, families, and churches.  As I read the list of occultist influences, I’m shaken at the influences that make their way into our homes when we compromise because we don’t want to appear being “uncool,” “old school” or “off-the-deep-end.”

Do you wrestle with this? 

Do you wrestle with not fitting in or your kids not fitting in if you don’t join in the latest-craze-that’s ungodly-yet popular?

Are you afraid you’ll be called “weird” if you don’t allow your kids to partake, read, listen to or engage in accepted practices?

I’ve struggled with this. While I’m not going to share my list of things we’ve said no to, I was glad to see that several things were on the list of occultic and New Age practices, even though they’re fully accepted by modern Christian circles.

You’d be surprised at things in our lives that are rooted in the occult.

In response to the seminar, I prayed through each room in our house, asking God to show me what opens the door to an ungodly presence in our home. As He reveled things to me, I gathered them from bedrooms, bookshelves, and store rooms.  I made a pile of toys, vinyl records, VHS tapes, and books to be removed.

I did the unconventional and took them to our fire pit and burned them. 

I’ll be honest, sharing this with you is scary. But I’ve seen enough spiritual warfare and demonic presence in the last twenty years to be afraid of what people think. Raising kids in today’s world has to start with fighting for their souls rather than worrying about being cool. For my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I’d rather err on the side of being uncool and God-honoring than selling their souls just to fit in.

We live in an increasingly ungodly generation, yet it’s the generation our children will be leaders in and will raise their children to be leaders in. Blurred lines will be more prevalent, and each of us raising kids need to be in the full presence of God and His Word, daily, to discern where the lines need to be drawn.

That’s why I’m not telling you what’s on my burn-pile list. Your list of conviction needs to come from God through His Word and prayer for your family. As you seek God, He’ll show you what needs to be removed from your life and that of your family. But I’m praying for you and you step out in obedience and out of fear of what others will think.

This is my prayer for you, “Oh, that your hearts would be inclined to fear Him and keep all His commands always, so that it might go well with you and their children forever!” Deut 5:29 Amen.

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