A Promise to My Children

     My children are wonderful! I know this because God's Word told me so:
Psalm 139:14
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Please don't mistake what I just typed for me saying that my children are perfect or without fault. My children are sinners. My children make bad choices. My children have weaknesses.
     This is what I tell my children and what I believe: God made each of us, from the outer shell, to the inner core. He created us with strengths that we could easily use for his glory. He created us with weaknesses that we would struggle to use for his glory. My job as a parent is to encourage and guide both the strengths and the weaknesses. I am to instruct them toward becoming functioning, self-sufficient, God-fearing, confident, humble adults with hearts prepared to serve.
       I cringe when I watch the world label, tease, and bully people for the attributes God gave them. I celebrate the unique qualities in each creation. Now don't get me wrong, I've name-called and labeled plenty in my life. Oh how I wish that I wrote about things that I have successfully and completely overcome. Unfortunately, I remain a sinner with moments of weakness and bad choices. Still, God continues to change my heart. Becoming a parent has opened my eyes to a tiny glimpse of what God sees when he looks at all of us. I want to claim encouragement and uplifting things for people.
     More than once I have heard of this process that takes place throughout our lives. It is a process used by the devil. It looks like this:
Wounds: Strategic arrows launched into are lives, (trauma, abuse, labeling, name-calling, neglect)
Lies: Wounds become infected with lies from the enemy (You are worthless, nobody cares, you are weird, you are annoying)
Agreements: Satan repeats lies until we accept them as truth, (I'm alone, I'm useless, I'm worthless)
Vows: walls built, hearts hardened, choices made all because one has made an agreement with a lie!
False self: distorted view of who we are and who we were created to be.
(derived from model found in "Surrendering the Secret" by Pat Layton)
     I have spent years digging into my spirit and finding the roots of lies I believed about myself.  I realized that I had allowed the tainted opinion of others to determine how I looked at myself.  I had never considered their own brokenness when they launched arrows at me.  Unfortunately, this process begins in early childhood.  Family, teachers, and other children begin stamping labels on a person until it becomes engraved in their spirit! I have learned that through prayer and Bible study I can replace lies with God's truth. Every ounce of my being can be used for God! My strengths, my weaknesses, the annoying habits I have, the way I look at life, the choices that I've made--good and bad--everything can be used for God. My life was changed because of one verse that speaks to me daily:
Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (emphasis added)
     This verse says nothing about loving God with only the strengths or with the things that are easily tolerated about you. It says ALL! I will not allow my children or others in my life to feel self-conscious or belittled for something they are supposed to love God with--not if I can stop it! I make this vow to my children: If I see arrows being launched in your direction I will stand as a shield. I will do my best to keep them from hitting you. I will allow them to hit me instead, because they will hurt me, but not deeply. I recognize the enemy as the source and will turn away from it. I pray you won't even know they were aimed at you! I will not agree with the labels and lies! You are fearfully and wonderfully made by a perfect Holy God! I claim confidently that God will use every tiny speck of your inner and outer being for his glory if you allow him. In the areas where you struggle, I will discipline you when necessary to train away the misguided handling of your God-given characteristics.  I will encourage you to turn to God for guidance and strength, and in turn, give him the glory when you come out on the other side as more than a conqueror!
Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
     When you show strength and are easily successful, I will stand in awe of a God who created you so beautifully. I will build you up in this knowledge, but remind you of your need for humility because it is our goal to make God famous--not ourselves.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Finally, when I see you doing something that is considered "abnormal" or "annoying" to the world, I will celebrate with you what a unique creation you are. When others call you weird, geeky, annoying, air-headed or other names meant to penetrate your spirit with Satan's arrows, I will stand by you, lift your chin, and remind you of the quirky heroes of the Bible that God used to do his work, like John the Baptist.
1 Peter 2:9King James Version (KJV)
9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;(emphasis added)
John 15: 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
      As I pray for your protection from these arrows, I will pray that in my times of weakness, I am not one of the archers. I pray over my own tongue and my children's tongues:
Ephesians 4:29
New International Version (NIV)
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
     I pray that the generation of my children is one that begins to understand their worth in the eyes of God, and that every characteristic about them was placed there by God and for God. I pray that they realize that it is sometimes tough to use things that you don't like about yourself for God, but that is why he put it there. If we didn't have strengths, we would not have passions and talents to use for God's glory, but if we didn't have weaknesses, we'd never have a need to depend on him.
Psalm 139:
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.