A little over a month ago, a father and son were on a camping trip in Boynton Beach, FL. The boy, 6-year-old Joey Welch, accidentally fell into the water. The father heard a blood-curdling scream when he look around and saw an 8-foot alligator with Joey’s right arm in his mouth.
Dad, Joseph Welch, jumped into the water and began beating the alligator in the head with his fist. A bystander saw what was happening and jumped into the water and started kicking the alligator in the stomach. Finally, the alligator released the boy who only suffered minor injuries.
How heroic it is to put your life on the line to save your child from physical harm. Paul wrote: “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). That surely applies to physical defense as much as anything.
Yet, it is even more heroic to put your life on the line to save your child from spiritual harm. But the challenge here is that sometimes, our children are fighting against us. “All the other girls at school are wearing them…!” “All my friends have seen the movie!” All of us parents want to be liked by our kids. None of us want our children to be ashamed of us. We don’t want our children to feel like they are odd-balls, left out of their social circle. We don’t want to hear them whine. We don’t like to see them pout.
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The environment in which our children grow up influence them. Yet, if our influence, and the Bible’s influence, over them is not powerful enough – the Devil will crowd it out. Children allowed to be babysat by the television are destined to be alligator bait. Children who are not taught to put on and utilize the full armor of God will be prey for the Devil who is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
Parents, our job is not to always be popular with our children, much less with their friends. Our job is to raise our children to honor God. Let that be the motivating factor in our decisions as parents (1 Corinthians 10:31).
–Paul Holland
