armed for school

Early childhood is a time when little ones are buffered from the world.  For most of us, the family unit was the comfortable cocoon in which to learn as we grew under the broad wing of parental love, guidance and encouragement.  Our world was our family.  Before we knew it, we found ourselves standing alone looking up at the towering doorways of public education for the first time.  Like a young bird being pushed from the nest, school was our first experience of first flight.

As a parent, I experienced emotions that my parents must have felt.  I remember looking in the rear-view mirror and losing sight of my young child as she became part of a herd.  It doesn’t seem that long ago that I watched Katie as she was shepherded into the building by a stranger.  I could hear the bell ring in the distance and remembered what it felt like to experience walking down those institutional walls for the very first time.  Like my first born, came my second child, and the feelings never changed.  With both children I felt both anxious and a little sad.

I was anxious because she was no longer completely within my protection.  I was anxious that she was now in a strange land without her father and mother.  I was a little sad because with each passing year, we have to let go a little more.  As parents, we begin learn to lean on God a little more.  We pray that our children will be okay in the world.  They begin by learning new things and experience new adventures.  They will bring home crayon masterpieces, construction paper hats, and progress with reading, writing and arithmetic.  When they are little, they look forward to the next school day.

By junior high, the landscape has changed.  The kid’s have been out there and know now what to expect.  By junior high, education isn’t bated with sugar cookies and recess.  Teachers are getting down to business, expecting their pupils to get down to business and bear the responsibility of learning.  Something more is going on though, more than classes and homework.  Something deeper and darker awaits our children.  Evil awaits!

As this year approaches I see it in my daughter’s countenance.  As the last week dwindled down to the last few days of Summer’s freedom.   She ponders the pending future with an uncertain gloom.  I can see it on her face and hear it in her voice.  School for her growing up was a happy place.  But now she approaches her new high school year as a soldier would D-Day. She is braced, but not feeling ready.

School is an unavoidable an un-erasable sentence.  School is a child’s first encounter with the world.  For those who were raised in Christian homes, they will experience first-hand the merciless salvos of principalities and darkness.  They are bused into a world where children are often cruel to one another.  Here young souls experience darts and arrows targeted directly at them.  Children can be cruel.  Peer groups, social elites.  Here the world sharply divided those who are weak, from those who are strong, those who are big, from those who are small, those who are pretty, from those who are plain, those who are rich, from those who are poor.  On the campus, let the cruelness begin.  Oh how the enemy in this world sets his forces against our own children, to break their spirit.

School approaches my child, and there is no stopping it.  It’s going to be a head on collision and I sympathize with her gloom of the looming inevitability of Monday.  As her parent, she seems to not believe that I was once there too.

Last night I told my child that as she pursues the Kingdom of God in her life, she will experience a Matrix moment.  If she is to overcome this world in her life, she will need to see the world for what it really is.  I believe she will see it.  She will see herself fighting not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and darkness.  She will see through the façade and see her part in this battle.  Each day is masquerade and she will learn to see behind the masks.   She will see the world as Jesus does.  Lost.

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
-Ephesians 6:12

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exaulteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of  Christ."
-2 Corinthians 10-5

Elitism has an ugly face. The lost soul will try to make another feel small, in order to feel big.  The lost soul will make another feel dumb, in order to feel smart.  How noble is a heart that would make another appear the nerd, in order to feel cool?  How beautiful is the heart that would make another feel ugly, in order to feel pretty?  It’s a small world after all.

The world is filled with fallen children of Adam.  This world is filled with a humanity that is self-absorbed, self-serving, and self-righteous.  This is what God sees.  This is why God sent His beloved Son.  The Matrix moment for everyone is to see that the world is filled with lost children.  It is in school that our children must learn to be in this mess, but not of it.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
-1 John 4:4

This is why I am sending my children to school armed.  Self-confidence is a good thing, but a child needs to be given more.  They need to be armed for the world with something sharp.  They need protection. The child needs the sword of truth, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness.   My children need to have the mind of Christ. Katie reads her Bible daily.  I see that life is already putting the Word in her to the test.  All the scripture that she’s read have yet to reveal its full meaning.  She has still yet to experience enough life, not yet experienced all that is in the world.  Like the young rulers of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, my children will be tested, but they will not be unarmed.  The Word is in them and their parents are equipping them and giving them continual prayer support.   We want them to know God and know His voice, no matter how far they are from us.

"We must put on the whole armor of God.  We must have the character of Jesus Christ.  It is impossible to have the power of God without having the character of God, which is holiness."
-Ephesians: 6: 10-18

As we each travel in the world, we learn what it means to be in it and not of it.  We learn that through each encounter, each valley, each hardship, we will find God’s glory beyond each personal conflict.  We can give thanks that no matter what we endure, we can overcome if we are always in Him.  It is how we weather the most difficult times that forges our character.  As we lean on Him, and go through life pursuing His Kingdom in our lives, we begin to take on the character of Christ.  Something I have discovered about my Creator, He redeems all of our hardships.  If we go with God in this world, we will come out the other end different.

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
-2 Corinthians 12:9

The world would have my children think little of their selves.  As a father, I am given the eyes of God to see my children for who they truly are.  My daughters are beautiful inside and out.  They are each a gift from God and gifted by God in their own unique way.  They are loving creatures that love to love and love to laugh.  They will sing to the world their own song.  Yes, each of their lives a beautiful song to God’s glory.  The world will continue to lie, but we know that the world is a liar.  Gina and I will do our best to raise them in the light for as long as we have their lives to keep.

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
-John 16:33

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. This is true holiness."
Philippians: 4:8

So off to school my lovely children, off into the world you go.  You have God and God has you.
 

God on Katie!

God on Kelsey!

God on your children too!