Arrow Sharpening

If you were provided a glimpse into your child's future, and were given the knowledge that your child's destiny was to die a martyr's death while ushering  people into Christ's kingdom, would you raise them differently?

What would your parenting be focused on... football? Trying to help them fit in with their peers? Getting straight A's on their report card? Running interference in order to protect them from all things painful?



It would change everything....wouldn't it?

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him.

                 ~ Philippians 1:29

 Someday my hope is to see these arrows fly from my quiver, stronger than I thought they would be; bolder than I ever imagined, and sure of who they are in Jesus Christ. As a Christ follower, who is also a mother, I need to produce children who will make a difference in the battle betwen Good and evil.

Our kids need something more than safety. God did not make us for safety. He made us to go build His kingdom and transform the world.
       ~Gary Haugen (founder International Justice Mission)

Being misrepresented, slandered, reviled, persecuted, and wrongfully accused is an inevitable part of being a Christian. We must expect to suffer unjustly. Our lives confront the culture we live in. We live as aliens in the world, and it should not surprise us when the world is hostile toward us (1 John 3:13). We were called for that purpose. In this world we will have tribulation. It goes with the territory.

        ~John MacArthur

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
     ~John 16:33

God's calling is for us to step out of our sense of false protection across the boundary of fear into the adventure that is the heart of the gospel.

Some kids see their parents treating faith like a hobby, so they follow suit. We know that children’s perceptions of their parents’ religious beliefs — and the accuracy of these perceptions — influence the acceptance of these beliefs.
   ~Tim Kimmel (Why Christian Kids Rebel: Trading Heartache for Hope)

 I want, and pray! that my faith is real to my children, and that my life isn't just a "church" show on Sundays. It's about keeping it real with my kids, and showing my very real up and down relationship with God, modeling Christ's forgiveness; the Good News of the Gospel! We need to keep our own walk real; not being hypocritical or fake, showing them that it's...

    not just about church, but about our relationship with the Lord.


I do not want my children to grow up just being consumers of all things Jesus, but to live their life with the goal of helping usher in Christ's kingdom.

 I must not grow weary in seeding God's good in their hearts and lives. I admit watching my children step out further and further from my physical protection will be the hardest thing I do as a parent. I want to teach my kids to make decisions on their own - even if those decisions scare me.


The goal, has got to be to equip them, and then encourage them to go out under the banner of our prayers.

Clearly, some suffering is part of God’s will. It isn’t necessarily the suffering itself that is God’s will, but rather following the will of God in a fallen world will generate suffering in our lives.
      ~Gary Haugen (IJM)

I must make it clear to my children that becoming a Christian is not for the faint of heart.


If we remember that we are strangers, foreigners, and soldiers in a real spiritual battle behind enemy lines, it should cause us to take Scripture and its commands seriously. I need to let go and have faith that everything that happens to my children, even when they are older and outside my sphere of influence, IS PLANNED by God.


This truly is the hardest lesson that I have to learn.

Deep within all of us there is a yearning to be brave. And like all of our deepest, truest and best yearnings, it comes from how we were made.
      ~Garu Haugen (IJM)

Father God...these things I pray for my children: Open the eyes of their heart and let them really see you, give them friends that will encourage them in their walk with Christ, give them wisdom when making decisions that will impact their futures.

And For myself:  help me to authentically show my children my love for You...and Your love for me through all my imperfections, and then when its time, prayerfully...

                                              let them go.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.        

                      ~Ephesians 6:12

Always Seeking Higher Ground,

Nora