Today’s reading on Thanksgiving is 2 Timothy 3.
For me our reading today has perfect timing, like God’s Word commonly does out of no coincidence, as a bookend to a parenting conference and Sunday sermon by Brook and Elizabeth Moser and team with Intentional Parents this weekend at our church. This chapter reminds us that especially during end times and throughout our kids and our lives we will experience evil people with a love for self and pleasure above all things who can tempt us to head down that wrong path (2 Timothy 3:1-5). We often talk as Christians about the fact that we want others to see us and think, “What makes him/her different?” We discuss how we can impact them and their faith walk with Jesus by them to deciding they want the joy and peace we have through the Gospel as well. That’s what’s fun to talk about. What we don’t often talk about is that others will see us as “different” and not only judge us and laugh at us, but we are told here in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted.” There is no sugar coating from Paul here, there is pain in parenting differently than others by doing it the way God wants. There will be difficulty and stones thrown at us and our kids for putting sin away and putting Jesus first.
Many of us are likely familiar with 2 Timothy 3:16..
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”
If you’re like me you may point to this verse for your conviction for all of Bible being the true Word of God and not only is it true, but we can’t pick and choose the parts we like and don’t like. I think then sometimes we can overlook the rest of the verse which tells us how that helps us…”for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Again, if you’re like me you might easily stop there and not focus on finishing the sentence which is in 2 Timothy 3:17,”(so) that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” There will be fruit in following God’s Word despite the difficulty and persecution we will face. Who doesn’t want to be “complete” and “equipped for every good work” God has and wants for us?
Many of us can easily fall into the trap of saying we just want to raise good kids. But, good kids will not have an eternal life in Heaven if they don’t accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior when they die. The number 1 goal for us as parents should be to raise kids who have a heart and love for Jesus so strong that they will not stray from Him, their belief in Him, and His ways when they leave our house.
So parents, let us unite and win this battle together. We can have confidence we can do this as we are told here that God’s Word will help us be “complete” and “equipped for every good work.”
Let us pray..
Dear God, we love you. And today on Thanksgiving we are grateful for you and your Word which not only teaches us how to live and raise our kids, but also for the fact that you gave us your Son in the person of Jesus who was persecuted far worse than most all of us ever will experience for following you and your will, all the way to the point of death because He knew it was worth it. He followed your will for each one of us so that we could have eternal life. Although our children will make their own personal decision to follow Jesus, please help us know that following your will and leading them well to point them to You will also be worth it for our children despite the difficulty and persecution. Please help us do our part so that we can lead by example to help each one of our children accept and follow you in order to experience eternal life through your saving grace. Again, we love you and we are eternally grateful today on Thanksgiving and every day for doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Amen.
