The problem I see is the belief that building forts is the right strategy.  Might I counter that with another approach, another way of raising kids?  Rather than building forts I would encourage parents to equip knights.  Give your kids the tools and weapons they will need when they go into the world and leave your home because one day they will face the world….ready or not.  If you don’t arm them intellectually, biblically, morally, and spiritually for the battles ahead they will find themselves speechless and “naked” before a world that has been battling the issues you have protected you child from for most of their lives.

Sending a child into this world unarmed is the cruelest of all parenting decisions.  Let me suggest that, rather than protecting them from the world you help them engage the world, deal with the hard issues of sex, homosexuality, morality, atheism….ETC….and do it with them while still in your home.  The difference in the outcome couldn’t be more clear. A child raised in a fort will face the world and fail not far from the castle gates, but a child prepared for the world around them will know the issues, know how to think and be ready with a living faith to face a cynical world.

These ideas are just seeds sown at the moment. I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas as we raise children in a post-Christian world. How much better to send them out into the world dressed and ready for the battle, able to deal with the issues they will face when they leave home.

Here is an article on this topic I encourage you to read- “Listening to Young Atheists”

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

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I know you’ve heard that expression before, but in reference to God’s work in our lives it’s more true than you could ever imagine. He has made us and placed us in this time, in this place to be part of his plan.

Timing is everything and the God who invented time is working through it to show us his love and sovereignty. He’s the master of the moments. He wonderfully unfolds his plan in time, in our lives, in the events of our lives at just the right moment.

We had a wonderful example of this on Sunday when our air conditioner went out. I wrote about it a couple days ago. It was hot on Sunday, but who knew it would be 110 yesterday and now 108 today? Timing is everything when you are walking with God. The times and events of our life are orchestrated for our good and his glory in HIS time.

When David wrote, “My times are in God’s hands” (Psalm 31:15) he was speaking of more than he could ever imagine. Not only my times but my places are in his hands as I walk with him through the events of my life. When I look back over these years of walking with God I see amazing events coming together to accomplish plans I could have never imagine.That’s why David could write, “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8) In other words you can trust him….he won’t fail you.

He reveals his plan in even more detail when the author wrote, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16) Even the exact number of moments given to me have been counted…to the second…and each of those seconds align to accomplish God’s perfect plan in his perfect timing in my life and yours.

Timing is an amazing thing to watch in the hands of the one who invented it. I think of his amazing timing when I met my wife on that Sunday morning long ago. I think of his timing when I quit one job without another in site only to have one provided the next day. I think of his care and work in my life in a hundred different moments of time realizing that every moment has that same attention from him. I am so grateful for a God who loves me in this moment right now.

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

The post Timing first appeared on CHRISTIAN REP.