Rise up Parents

iStock_000018279520MediumParents – now is your hour to rise up. Rise up and have a voice. This coming weekend in Australia is a major political election that could markedly influence and shape our nation’s future and our children’s future. Raise your voice and let those around you know the values you hold dearly to and want to protect.

If the Labor party is elected as the governing party of this country, we can expect the ‘Safe Schools’ program to be rolled out and, as has already occurred to a friend’s 4 year old daughter – the Kinder teacher showing her how she can now dress like a boy and tell her mum she wants to be a boy. How our young people will be consistently barraged in every school subject about transgender issues and the acceptance of bizarre behaviour and the licence to be anything. We can also look forward to homosexual marriage becoming legalised within several months.

Our children’s identity is under attack. It is under attack like never before. Our children and youth have to deal with far more than anything I had to deal with at school. Their identity is being knocked around far more than what I remember going through. The media is fashioning youth to live beyond boundaries, to have no boundaries.

Parents, if we are raising world changers, we need to protect our children’s identity. I am not talking about wrapping them in ‘cotton wool’ and protecting them from the ‘big bad world’ by isolation. No, I am talking about protecting their identities by helping them become whole, helping them see themselves as God sees them, helping them to understand how God created them as unique individuals and gifted them to impact the world around them, not to be impacted by the world.

Parents – how are you doing this? It may be as simple as starting with what they are reading and watching on tv. It may be by daily inputing into their lives encouraging affirmation of who they really are, how God sees them, how you are so proud of them for standing up and being themselves, of affirming their strengths. It may be by spending every evening praying for them as they go to bed and blessing their uniqueness, their identity, their giftings, their design, their destiny. The world is screaming enough negative stuff that would be so easy for them to take to heart and believe. Our voice of affirmation, encouragement and support needs to be heard in their life. We need to ‘call them up’ their identity, their design, their purpose, their destiny.

Identity is under attack in this generation. Never before have so many children in schools been given ‘labels’. Society is struggling with anyone who is slightly ‘quirky’, ‘different’ or who expresses themselves in a way that we don’t classify as ‘normal’. It makes it easier for society if they can label you and give you an excuse for your behaviour that doesn’t meet the ‘norm’. Please hear me, I am not saying that there are not genuine cases of children with ASD and autism. What I am saying is that I believe far too many kids are labelled because it makes it easier for us to ‘manage’ them rather than look at their individual needs and adapt accordingly. All too often a child’s quirky or disobedient behaviour can ‘push’ buttons in ourselves and threaten to let our anger and frustration and unhealthy behaviour emerge. How often are we really taking the time to get to know these kids and see the beauty in their lives. To call out their strengths, their uniqueness, their destiny.

This generation is affected by extremes like never before. Extreme sports are on the rise. Extreme examples of various ways people live are promoted. The extremes in sexuality are now being pushed with the ‘safe schools’ program.

Parents – speak up. Protect your child’s identity. Pray for them. Love them unconditionally. Speak affirmation into their lives. Spend time nurturing them. Dream with them. One of the biggest and most helpful actions that you can take as a parent is to get healing for yourself. Chase your own healing. Growing up, everyone gets knocked around a bit, some more than others. No parent is perfect so there will always be something in your background that will have hurt you at some stage. Go through some prayer ministry, counselling etc to chase your freedom and healing and this will have major implications for your children’s future as you become more whole.

Enjoy your week by speaking up and protecting your child’s identity.