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Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

From Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children, as too many from Christian families are walking away from their faith by the age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome to the show. We’re so glad you’re here. Hey, guys, we’re talking about warning will your kids want to have children? This is such an important topic because even if you would assume that your children, of course would want to have children, I think this is this episode is about making sure we’re sober minded. We’re thinking clearly about what’s real, not just being an optimist, because what’s real is what’s real.

We can’t just assume that our kids are going to want to have kids, because maybe we wanted to have kids, right? And I think that a lot of people do make that natural assumption, and especially for like, daughters, right? If they like babies when they’re girls and they like babysitting and all that sort of stuff, it’s easy to just assume that they’re going to want to have kids. But the reality is, is there’s some lies in the culture, and we’re going to go over those in today’s podcast to make you aware of what you need to be fighting against and teaching against, actually. And there’s also your kids.

There’s also things parents are doing and saying Christian parents and they don’t even realize it, but it likely could be deterring their children. Your children, perhaps from wanting to have more children way down the road.

We could have named this podcast do you want to have grandchildren? But but we thought, oh, maybe they won’t be thinking that far down the road. But for us, we’re already grandparents. We love our grandchildren. And you know, this reminds me of Proverbs 17 six, which says grandchildren are a are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. So true. And so this is a scripture that just, hey, listen, there are crown. There’s a glory in having, um, children and grandchildren. And we should have that perspective. If we don’t, we need to check our perspective with the Bible. So we’re really excited to dive into the word with you guys.

Hey, real quick, I do want to say you’re part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. By listening. It helps every listen helps get the word out. And if you share it, give a five star review wherever you play. The episode at Spotify or YouTube or, you know, uh, Apple, wherever it is. Courageous. Parenting.com. We so appreciate it. And we’re about to launch, uh, a giving campaign to the ministry for the purposes of being able to continue doing what we’re doing, but also grow the impact of the ministry. I don’t know if, you know, there’s three podcast shows coming out every week right now. Monday’s hard at home Tuesday. This show haven’t stopped for almost six years. Every single week. Never missed a week. And now Wednesdays for almost a year. Regular show as well. So, um. Hard. The home’s been pretty cool.

It’s exciting. I mean, the heart of the home is the weekly Bible study that I lead on Friday mornings, 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time in the Be Courageous app. Um, they’re usually about an hour and 15 to an hour and a half long. Um, obviously the replays are available in the app as well, but we have been doing this since last February, which is so exciting that we’re nearing our year first full year of doing this every Friday. Talking about topics related to being a homemaker, a biblical woman, a wife, and a mom. And now you can get a taste test of the Friday morning Bible studies that also have a Q&A. You can get a taste test of that by listening to the heart of the home podcast. Yeah.

Completely free. And if you want more and all the things, be part of the Be Courageous app. So, uh, this is such an exciting time. I by the way, you might be wondering if you’re watching the YouTube why we have different chairs, where are our normal chairs? And we need to.

Go get them back there in the new church building temporarily.

We borrowed them for the open house.

We borrowed a bunch of our stuff for the open house. My house plant. My plant that was in here too is was also gone. Um, quite a few things got borrowed, so we have to go get those still. Yeah, but.

So anyways, be courageous ministry.org and you can see the give button right there. The fundraising campaign. You can read why and what it’s for and so forth, which is really exciting. There’s a lot of good things coming.

So before we dive into our topic of the day, which is warning, Will your kids want to have children themselves? You know, one of the things that we’re going to be talking about in this first point is all about the cultural lies, the things that are not biblical, that are being impressed upon the world today, and how do we equip our children for that? And I want to just share with you guys a resource I’m using this year with my teenagers, with my my high schoolers. It’s an apologetics program by Master Books. Awesome. I am actually already starting to read some of this with the kids, because this is something that we’re going to be working on throughout the year, but they have two different volumes on how do we know that the Bible is true? This is written by Ken Ham and Brad Hodge, and they go over a lot of different things. So if you’ve ever gotten in a conversation with someone where they’ve brought up. Oh well, the Bible contradicts itself or they bring up. Well, what about this? If the Bible says this, what about this? We know that this is true, and they’re antagonistic against the truth that we find in the Bible. These books that are part of an apologetics curriculum help to equip you in knowing what does the Bible actually say, that it’s sufficient and that it doesn’t contradict itself. The other two resource books that we have here are by the same authors as well, but they’re called Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions, volume one and volume two. So I’m excited to be going through these volume one and two of these books and of these books, which is Adam and.

Eve, real people. What about the Apocrypha? What about how can I use hell in evangelism? Wow. Very interesting.

And some of the chapters are by Ray comfort, if you’re familiar with his ministry at all. Um, but it’s really a powerful resource. There are other books as well for younger kids. Like the answers, books that are written by Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis. Those are also really great books to get started with your younger kids. If you’re diving into apologetics, it’s just this is a time more than ever where we as parents need to be aware of the lies that are in the culture. And the reality is, is there’s constant temptation to just believe something that you see on a regular basis or you hear on a regular basis, not knowing that that actually goes against a biblical worldview. So as parents, it’s it’s helpful to have tools. Where do they get it? They can find it at master books.com/courageous. We still have the giveaway going. I think that this is going to be the last week. So please go and sign up there. You can also see what other favorite curriculums I have.

So well hey let’s dive in. So our first key for you guys in talking about this is parents. It’s the parents duty to offset the cultural pressures. You already know that because you’re courageous parents you’re listening to this. You’re intentional to even listen to this podcast. Right. Um, but there’s a lot of pressures in culture, and it’s not just protecting your kids while they’re young. You have to equip them to be ready to protect themselves as they’re with peers, as they’re with other people. And it really doesn’t matter as much as you might think it does that. Oh, but my kids are only hanging out with Christian children that I approve of. Well, even in those circles, everybody’s parenting is different. Everybody’s children are exposed to different things you don’t even know about. It is important not to make assumptions. It’s important that we understand those influences will even come through Christian peers. And it’s really important that our children know how to stand against that.

You know, I think it’s important to realize when children are going to church, usually they’re going with parents who call themselves Christians, right? Yeah. You know, but the reality is to understand that those kids are not yet spiritually mature. Many of them have not actually been born again and received Christ as their eternal Savior. And so they’re going to church. They’re obeying their parents, they’re being taken to church. But there’s a whole lot of unsaved people at church. So just because your your kids meet friends at church, it does not automatically mean that they are like minded, that they believe the same things, or that they know the same things or have been protected from the same things. And so I think that it’s really important that we realize that Ephesians chapter two is one of the first places we’re going to start out in Scripture today says, and you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world. So today we’re going to talk about the course of this world, the messages that they give following the Prince of the power of the air. Who are we talking about here? Obviously it’s Satan. He’s the prince of the power of the air, the spirit small s that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. This is the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience all over the world right now, okay, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.

So there’s this temptation, right? We have to put off the old self, put on the new self, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So this is literally saying all of mankind was actually born the the nature children of wrath. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Jesus Christ. I think that you know this scripture. When I look at this, it’s like, okay, this obvious, Contrast of the world and what it’s like to live in Christ, who we once were. Who we now are in Christ. So as we start sharing some of the realities of the messages that are in the world and how it can negatively impact being obedient to what God’s Word says in regard to even having children. Right? Because that’s something that God designed. God designed the family. He designed our bodies to work that way.

So let’s talk about some reasons why. You know, the culture is the pressures of culture against having children, any children at all. And then we’ll talk about ways parents are causing challenges in this too. So first of all, maybe it’s money, right? There’s impression that it costs too much money to do it. In fact, there’s articles out there. Not that your kids are reading these articles, but they’re probably going to hear about these eventually. They’ll see these as they become young adults and so forth. And are you preparing them for this? You know, there’s an article, uh, in US news report that says it’s about 25,000, uh, for one year to have a young child, right?

That’s a lot. And inflation.

I’m already negatively influencing you, but we’re going to fix it in a second. And then there’s another article that talks about it’s about 310,000 to raise a child in your home for those 18 years and so forth. And I just think that those numbers aren’t necessarily true. They might be true for people that do lots of child care, for example. They’re factoring that in. They’re factoring all these things in. But see, when people see those numbers they don’t understand it. Like if, if you’re, you know, not doing lots of child care because or.

Maybe you’re not nursing your baby, so you’re buying formula and you’re, you know, there’s like there’s a way of living that is a lot more expensive. Yes. Right. When you are, um, dependent upon being a consumer.

There’s also economies of scale. There’s as you have more children, it’s like it doesn’t cost that much more. You know, you’re.

Passing down clothing.

You’re passing down clothing, you’re making larger meals, which is more efficient. It’s taking the same amount of time.

There’s less waste.

Propane or electricity on the stove. You know, and these kinds of things, you could just go all kinds of ways. Right. And, you know, it’s interesting because, you know, climate change becomes the the next thing. It’s like fear of hurting the world. And even if you have a more biblical perspective about the earth and what’s going on and so forth. Right. Does the Earth change in temperature? Absolutely. Is are we going to uphold the Earth as an idol over human beings? And no, that wouldn’t be a biblical view at the same time. Are Christians supposed to take good care of the earth and the plants and the animals? They’re supposed to have dominion. Absolutely. Right. So there’s this balance. But, you know, this climate change thing is being used for evil. It is very, very clear. And one of the ways to do it is, I believe, to depopulate the earth and really influence that. Well, it’s.

Something that they’re unapologetic about. It’s not just something that we believe that they’re doing. It’s not A hunch anymore, right? You hear people constantly talking about how we have too much population. It’s it’s a it’s a message that’s being spread everywhere. And in addition to that message, it’s being taught in colleges.

You know, they call it they call it a carbon legacy. I was just looking at the WEF website earlier today in preparation for this. It’s a carbon legacy. So that’s what people are talking about. Well, what is your carbon legacy for you and your children and your offspring in your family? What is the carbon footprint of that? And you should be concerned. Having too many children is bad, they say. Right. Because you’re creating a larger carbon legacy or footprint. And what I would say is now let’s create a godly legacy that shares the gospel generations forward and more people are in heaven because you had more children raised up in the way they should go.

Mhm. It’s interesting too because they’re not actually looking at the they’re not exposing the truth about the science of how plants grow. And they need Carbon dioxide, and then they put off oxygen, which then we breathe. It’s the same kind of ecology of life for us. So we cook and there’s literally zero waste on our food because we eat a lot. But then we give scraps to our chickens, and then our chickens create eggs for us, which we then eat. But then their poo becomes the manure that creates the new dirt, that then grows the next set of plants the next year. And so we have this whole cycle going on where there’s this self-sufficiency, and it’s how God designed it to work.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think that when you recognise how they can work together versus looking at just one isolated thing, that’s why you have to have a big picture. You have to read the whole Bible, right? And not just take different verses out of context, because I’ve heard of other Christians who will well, they’ll say they’re a believer and they probably are. That’s between them and the Lord. But then they’ll be very judgmental and opinionated on this climate change thing and say, no, I’m not going to have any kids. I’m just going to adopt. Right. And just I just want to say something for a second. If you’ve adopted or you cannot have children because we are talking about this or your kids can’t, because infertility is becoming a bigger and bigger issue, especially with the health crisis that we have in the world, with all of the processed foods and the vaccinations and all the things, the toxins that we’re exposed to that we’re exposing our children to, it may be harder for our children to have kids. And so that being said, there is a need for us as Christians to rise up, to foster care, to adopt, to offer respite and support for families who are adopting. And that’s amazing. It’s not just a just adopt. It’s kind of like saying, I’m just a mom. That’s a huge, awesome responsibility, role and jurisdiction. And honestly, society is built on the backs of families.

Yeah. On the website, the World Economic Forum, WEF. There’s an article that they did a study, and they said 39% of young people globally are hesitant to have children all over the world. Right? And the reason is they’re concerned about climate change. And it also said climate anxiety is a natural response to climate change and can lead some young adults to avoid having children. So they’re normalizing a belief right there. They’re influencing through climate. Anxiety is natural response. Of course you would have that response. That’s a normal.

Thing to do. That’s the loving thing. It’s kind of like when there was the pressure of, oh, do you not love other people? You’re not wearing a mask or you’re not vaccinated. Do you remember this? It was that there was this manipulation.

Be a good Christian and get vaxxed. Otherwise you’re not loving, right? Or lots of top pastors in the land.

Oh push that. Yep, that’s a soapbox different podcast episode. But in reality there’s Christians that are even and people who will play that card regarding climate change. Change with Christians. Don’t you love people? You’re having too many babies. Don’t you know what prevents that? Oh, wow. You’ve got your hands full. All this negativity surrounding children as if they’re a burden. They are the future. They are the future. And not only that, but we know what God’s Word says about children being a blessing. We’re going to look at that in a little bit, because we need to instead turn our kids eyes towards the truth that’s found in God’s Word. When the world is filled with lies from the enemy that all lead to death, which we just read about.

I would just relisten to this. If you’re not in a place where you can take notes, because these are talking points to weave into your tabletop conversations at dinner or morning times and these kinds of things, not all at once, but just weave them in. What are some of these points to enforce? Well, another problem is selfishness in wanting to have control over our lives in a way that makes us not want to have any children, right?

I want my.

Freedom. That is part of the culture. That is the cultural norms that are out there right now. And then. The last culture spreader is fear. It’s just fear of of of the world. The world where things are going, all these kinds of things. And that’s of course, equally, I would say, unfortunately, seems to be in a lot of Christian circles too, is that fear of the world. And so it’s really important that we diffuse those things. In fact, in Romans eight verse five, it says, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. In fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So this is a very clear distinction of how we are to look at things and we’re not supposed to be fearful.

Well, and it’s there’s this challenge that we have right to recognize what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit. Yeah. You have to use discernment. And as your children get older, they’re going to have to make decisions for themselves and you can influence them. But right now, when they’re living in your home, you have the most impact and influence on their life that you will ever have in the future. There will be other voices. There will be what their future spouse believes about children. Their future in-laws believe about children. There will be coworkers. There will be neighbors, people that go to their church, people that are in their generation that they either went to college with or they’re co-workers with. The reality is, is right now, for those of you who are listening, if your kids are living in your home right now, you have the biggest influence you will ever have in your children’s lives. And so you have to teach them the difference of being able to discern when something is a self-absorbed, self-focused, selfish, prideful, um, way of being and all of the things that we’ve just given you. All of the points, whether it’s how much they’re saying it costs to raise a kid over their lifetime or even in a year, or if it’s, oh, I won’t be able to afford the fancy vacations if I have too many kids, or I can’t pay for them to also have a car and a college tuition and all these things, that’ll be too expensive.

I’m sorry. You do not need to buy your kids a car. We both bought our own cars and we’re better off because of it. We also both paid for our educations in in some sorts. And so there’s like this need for people to understand that when your kids have to work hard for something, they appreciate it more and they learn how to take care of it. And more people in the older generations used to understand that there’s been something that is disconnected from one generation to the next that has led to wayward parenting, And that it’s just simple things that have created an entitlement attitude that then creates self-indulgences, right where people are like, no, it’s about me. I want to live my dream, my best life, my this. I don’t want to have kids. I want to be a dink. That’s a real big thing right now. Like if you look on social media, this generation, the generation Zs, there’s this phrase that they use where it’s it’s called being a dink, where they want to grow up, have their own career and not have kids.

That is a terrible word. Like, I don’t even know what it means, but I would just acronym. I would just never say that about myself without even knowing what it means.

I mean, it just sounds really lame. What does it mean? You’ll have to look it up, okay? Or I’ll look it up while we’re talking here, but. All right. Hey, guys. Thanks so much for listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. We just want to take a moment to highlight some of our awesome sponsors who are actually there making the Courageous Parenting Podcast possible. And so let’s just take a moment and listen to the sponsors, and then we’ll get back to the show. I’m not naturally artistic, at least not in the fine art sense. So when my kids showed early on that they loved art, I wanted to nurture that creativity. That’s why we love creating a masterpiece. They’re award winning art programs are for everyone ages four ish through 104. Plus, your family gets to practice drawing, using watercolors, charcoal sculpting, painting, and so much more. And the best part? You get to do it all together. Building relationships, making memories, and letting creativity grow. Visit Creating a masterpiece.com/courageous to sign up for one low rate for your entire family that’s creating a masterpiece.com/courageous because anyone can create a masterpiece. But I want to share with you guys from Romans chapter 12 verse two. We’ve quoted this scripture so many times, you know this, but we’re going to start with verse one. It says, I appeal. I appeal, that’s not that’s like when Paul saying, I urge you, brothers, I beseech you, I appeal.

Please do.

This. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. You know what I wrote? Redeeming Childbirth because I believed that there was this there was this relationship I had with the Lord where there were times where I was scared to have another baby, and I had to work through that myself, and I had to come to a peace of like, Lord, what is your will for my family? And that is our story. That may not be your story. I’m just sharing part of our just a little bit of our story for a second. During those times, in prayer and in study of Scripture, I had to come to a place where I recognized that I was offering up my body in as a spiritual act of worship, to present my body, to say, Lord, use me as a vessel to bring forth life in a way that glorifies you. I’m willing to partner with you in bringing forth life again, and I’m going to trust you to take care of me. I believe you’re calling me to do this. I’m not going to disobey you in this because I knew that it was something he was calling me to, but I was reluctant and and it was all because I wanted an easier life.

Actually, it was all it was about me. I was really struggling. Oh, I don’t want to be puking again. Oh, I don’t want to feel that way. Oh, I want I just got out of diapers. Blah blah blah blah blah. Like, you could think of so many things, but I had to come to a place where I was willing to sacrifice a little bit of time, nine months of hardship because my postpartum were not as hard. Maybe for you, postpartum is harder and you have a great pregnancy. It doesn’t matter what it is. There always comes a time in parenting where you have to lay down your life for your child. That is called good parenting. It’s also helps us to understand the gospel and how Jesus laid down his life for all of us. That is something that God the Father did when he gave his only son for us. We have to learn what it means to sacrifice, and this scripture calls us to something higher. First two it says, do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Which, by the way, that only happens by reading the Bible. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good and acceptable and perfect.

So your children need to be discerning. Discerning. They can only be if they’re reading this in their own time, unprovoked by you. Meaning they are choosing that the Bible has wisdom. I’m going to go read that. If you don’t see evidence of that as they’re being raised in your home, what makes you think that something’s going to change once they’re in a youth program or once they launch from your home? Right. It doesn’t just change because they have a social environment. Oftentimes those social environments aren’t lending towards more of reading the Bible anyways, so it’s really important. Second thing is, do your kids feel like a burden or a blessing? We’re going to talk about the parenting responsibility, what Christian parents might be causing, in addition to worst peer pressure and cultural pressure. Now we have these issues too that could be perpetuating this in your children. If you want to have a legacy of faith, if you want to have grandchildren someday, then you have to take these things to heart, which is. And we do too. Do your kids feel like a burden or a blessing? Meaning how we talk to them. How we talk about them? Um, the issues of moments of correction. Um, is there a lot of yelling in the home? Um, you know, there’s an episode about yelling. You can find it, by the way. You can just Google or whatever browser you use. Courageous parenting in a word like anger. And you’ll find the podcast, the podcast episode on anger, most likely. Right. Courageous parenting on, um, you know, burden. You’ll find season four, episode 218, which is do your kids feel like a burden or a blessing? So we have a whole episode on this point, so we’re not going to talk at end about it, but it’s something that you definitely need to think about and consider and talk to you.

And the reason why it’s so important is because if your kids grow up feeling like they were always a burden, then they may view children as a burden and not want them, right? But if they view them the way God talks about them as a blessing, which is something that you first have to read and then also speak and treat, it’s how you treat your children, right? Um, but then reiterating and really loving and valuing life. Like, are you in a culture like a community even that just really values life, that wants to celebrate life, that wants to have baby showers, that wants to, like, bless the mama and bring meals and support? Like when you are in a community that is like that. It is literally the most influential thing on your daughter’s and on your son’s for them as they grow older so that they have a biblical view of kids. If you’re not part of a community that’s like that, if your church isn’t like that and you’re just too separated to where they don’t even know when someone’s had a baby. There’s no meals coming. There’s no, like, baby shower support, whatever. Like, then you need to find a different church. I’m just going to say it because life, this is literally one of the first things that God commanded Adam and Eve was to be fruitful and multiply. It is near and dear to God’s heart, which we’re going to look at in a few minutes. But when you are raising your kids, it’s hard when you feel like you’re the only one.

Yeah, and I think that for us, like there are many things I can think of, like homeschooling, for example, we’re a first generation homeschoolers. Some of you might be. Also, it can feel like you’re a salmon swimming upstream. Like like there are people that don’t believe in you. There are roadblocks. Maybe you you feel like you don’t know if you’re doing enough. You’re afraid you’re going to fail your kid. Like all of those things are very real. I remember feeling them a lot the first eight years that we were homeschooling, especially obviously now 21 years into it, I have graduated three. It’s like, no, this is what we’re doing for our family. This is the best thing for our family. But I remember how it felt being alone. And if you are a person who is trying to raise your kids to value life and to not fall into this trap and lie of make an idol out of the earth and worship the earth and worship the animals and and feel bad and be a skeptic and a sinister, you know, just being a cynical person about, oh man, my my own life is not even worth living because I’m ruining the earth. Like that is a depressing way to live. We don’t want our kids to catch on to those kinds of messages that are being pushed on them from school, from friends.

If I could just correct that thought, that message from somebody that you wouldn’t expect, you might have heard this. But Elon Musk says if people don’t have more children, society is going to crumble. He has said this over the last three years. Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlson. Yeah, but those are those are normal ones. But you know, Elon, you know, here’s somebody who’s even aware. He’s even aware. It’s from a mathematical standpoint, there’s not enough replication. There’s not enough children being born to replace what’s happening. We’re on a decreasing. And it’s from an economic perspective. We will not have enough jobs. We will not have enough people in the world. We need more people. And by the way, when I was looking this up, there’s a lot of articles that refute what Elon Musk is saying. And I’m just like, okay, the guy that understands economic situations in a way where he’s a CEO of several companies, started several companies changing the world in all these ways. I’m not validating him from a spiritual perspective at all. I hope you don’t get me wrong here, but from an economic business mindset, smarts, mindset, understanding what’s happening from an economic standpoint, I would much more trust what he’s saying than these liberal articles that are trying to refute him on every single point. So we know, you know this. We’ve we’ve watched something called demographic bomb, like 15 years ago.

Oh, I’m so glad you brought that up. I literally was going to talk about it. We’ve been.

Talking about this for 15.

Years or longer. I mean, I think Kelsey was maybe eight years old back then when we watched it and stats.

Were already there.

It was already there about what countries are going to be taken over by what people groups, based upon the fact that they’re believing this lie and they’re their population, their children, parents to children was 1.4 kids per family back then. And now there’s hardly any like France is taking over. So we watched.

This when our children were little and we didn’t even have them all. We were on an RV trip to the Oregon coast and we literally in the RV watched it together. Yeah, I.

Remember the first time I’ve watched it so many times because.

Why did we want that? Because of this very point. We don’t want them to get caught up in the negative culture that was there 20 years ago. Yeah, we watched it with our kids. We watched it because we were setting them up for this very point that we’re teaching you now. We’ve done for 15 years or more already with our children. It’s so important.

They can actually watch that on Prime. I’m pretty sure someone recently mentioned it to me. I would recommend it. It is worth watching. Remember that it was actually made like 1015 years ago and they interview even non-believers, but their demographic specialists all around the world talking about the population and the different issues and the crisis that they are predicting ten years, 20 years, 30 years down the road. And it literally now that it’s like 15 years later, everything’s getting predicted. It all happened. It’s all happening right now. It’s totally.

True. Another point I just want to bring up, and we’ll go into our final point in our unprecedented time tip, which is the two best things of this episode, um, is that I was looking up. You know, a lot of people believe that the mRNA vaccinations cause infertility, and there’s vaccine injuries and these kinds of things. And I was trying to look up and find a reputable article about that. And every single article was denying that the mRNA Covid vaccinations had any issues with infertility, miscarriages, things like that. I thought I was blown away by that. Fahrenheit 450. And then? And then I go, well, I’m going to use my brave browser and my brave browser. I couldn’t find one either. And so I can’t with authority because I wanted to have a source share that that’s a thing. But it’s certainly when you talk to Christian doctors and nurses, it appears to be a thing.

No it is. And when you know people who have been injured, so I’m going to circle back.

My point is something different, actually. The point is your children are going to be in a society where you can’t look up things and get a balanced perspective. You can’t look up things and find a viewpoint that’s accurate. You know what?

On that note, I want to interject. There are two really good books. We’ll put them in the blog post that I’ve read. One is called Turtles All the Way Down. It is fantastic. It was written by five anonymous Israeli scientists and it evaluates vaccinations from top to the bottom. It is fantastic. Hands down. Best book I’ve ever written on this. Have books because the websites are an issue. So you have to invest in having some books so that you can pass them on to your kids to read.

Build your library, but also teach them about that. Use examples. Google something you know is going to be censored, and only give them one way and show them that yeah, show them something they know is true is being shown as not true. When you look it up that education, real life education of how the algorithms work, how technology, big tech in Silicon Valley is working, how much different is it going to be in the future than that? Oh my goodness. Well, with AI.

People are not trained enough to read anymore. And the literacy rate, or rather illiteracy rate in America is going up. Literacy rates going down. Look up.

Uh, Google courageous parenting, critical thinking, and you’ll find an incredible episode about helping your children be good critical thinkers, to not get fooled by AI in the future and things like.

That. You know, I think, okay, so we are talking about the importance of being careful about the conversations that you have in your marriage. This is our point. Three be careful about the conversations that you’re having in your marriage when there’s little ears listening. Um, but also be intentional about the conversations you’re having in your marriage, knowing that little ears are listening and bigger ears are listening and middle ears are listening. So use your authority. Use your jurisdiction to equip and to prepare your children to know what they believe and why. By being intentional and teaching them, I just want to share a couple verses ones. In first John 215 it says, do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. And then it just continues on this whole passage. Memorize verses like this. Memorize verses like Colossians three two that says, set your minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth, right? Like, this alone is like a perfect verse for saying, hey, don’t make an idol of the Earth. The Earth is temporary. You’re. You’re like a sojourner on a traveling spree. You’re only here for a short period of time. Focus on the things that are eternal. Focus on the Lord. Teach your kids what the Word of God says so that they know what God. How God views children, which is the next thing we want to talk about. Right?

So and just just realize that there’s so much in the last three, 4 or 5 years. There’s so much that has happened, I guess since 2020. There’s so much that has happened, so many things to talk about, the knowledge, so many people talking heads, not in a negative way, but so many influencers talking about things and so many people tapped into that, that parents are naturally having conversations about their conspiracy theories that came true. I get it. We have these conversations right. They’re not conspiracy theories anymore. If all of them are coming true. Right. So but what’s happening when little ears are hearing this, little ears are hearing this, and it’s not given in a balanced view. It’s okay. We trust me. We educate our children on the things of this world. They probably know more than a lot of adults do. But, but, but here’s the thing. We balance that, and I have to be purposeful about it and think about it, because I don’t feel like I need the balancing myself, even though I really do. But our children need that from you. They need a biblical view. They need to have hope in their future. Do your children have hope for their future? And they likely won’t. If you’re not that balancing act, sharing scripture with them, giving them a vision for the future and what their family’s going to be like. It’s so important.

Okay, so we’re going to share a few verses that would be really powerful for you to read with your kids, and not just once. You need to bring them up, talk about them many times over the course of the years. So like, if you’re even only imagine if you were only reading these three verses, these three little passages of Scripture with your kids once a year. Do you think that that would make an influence? I mean, maybe, but what if you were doing it once or twice a year? What if you were doing it three times a year? What if it was 4 or 5 times a year? Plus, they’re hearing it from people in their community, and they’re hearing you reference it in regards to when a baby is born and you’re like, oh, we’re going to go to the store, you’re going to come with me. We’re going to pick out a baby shower gift because children are a blessing from the Lord. They’re a fruit of the. And then the kids are going to say womb, you know. And so, like you, you want your kids to have these verses ingrained in them. The first one we’re going to share is Psalm 37 verse four.

It says he will bring forth righteousness. Oh, wait. Sorry. Delight yourself in the Lord. So how do you delight yourself in the Lord? First, I just want to say again this is reading the the Word of God. We see in Proverbs the beginning of Proverbs. I meditate on your law day and night and this like overwhelming over and over again. We see throughout the Psalms and the Proverbs. Lord, thank you for your word. I’m meditating. I’m thinking on your word. I’m obeying your law. I want to obey your commands. We see that in John 14. Four times. If you love me, you will obey me. Obey me. And then I know you will love me, right? And so there’s this. There’s this call for Christians to be in the word. Delight yourself in the Lord, and then he will, it says, and he will give you the desires of your heart. So as you are cultivating and and growing in your child a desire to have children, you have to teach them to delight themselves in the Lord. First and foremost, it’s about seeking his will and discerning what he wants for his people. And then you go to Psalm 127, verses three through five.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. So hey, you got to have a vision for the future, and you got to share that vision with your children for the future. Do they have a vision for their family? Do they have a vision for what their future looks like? Is their vision for the future tainted by hearing conversations amongst you, amongst others? Amongst peers? Hearing the dialogue in society compounded even in church. They could be hearing things, you know. What are they hearing? And messages repeated over time get implanted as truth, as doctrines they hold on to. And we don’t want any bad doctrines to be held on to with your children. Paradigms of how they look at the world, what is their paradigm of their future. And it’s going to take work to make sure it’s even as good as yours might have been for having a family and raising a family. So it’s really, really important to have that vision. So let’s give an unprecedented times tip.

So we were talking about this for a while, and I think that the biggest thing is an encouragement to dream more with your kids, to not get bogged down about the realities of what are happening in the world, and to think negatively about the future, but instead to be hopeful and to be excited about the future, and to give your kids that hope and that vision, and to believe in the blessing of children, because that is something that the Lord promises. We literally just read it. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord and the children.

The future needs your children’s children.

That’s right. Psalm 128. So right after the scripture that Isaac just read in Psalm 127 says, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. Are you going to raise your kids to walk in his ways? It says, you shall eat the fruit of your labor, of the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. And then it just continues on. But it says, May at the very end, verse six, it says, May you see your children’s children, peace be upon Israel. And I go, whoa, look at that vision that God gives us of what it looks like to be blessed by him, what we’re called to as God’s people, to be faithful, to love the Lord, to work hard and that what his vision is, I’m going to bless you. And it’s not in the it’s not in the eyes of the world kind of blessing. It’s spiritual blessings which are treasures in heaven. It’s children. They’re the only thing you can potentially take with you or people in the sense of sharing the gospel. So here’s.

A challenge. Do you believe that Scripture? Do you believe it’s the infallible Word of God? And you’re going to say, yes, I believe it. Well, then let’s make sure we speak it. Let’s make sure we share it. Let’s make sure our children are indwelled with that truth that there is vision for them in the future, that God has a plan for their families and their children’s children and believe in that. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. You know, we need to act like he’s coming back today, but we also need to understand that he may not come back for generations upon generations. No person knows, no matter what their end times theology is. They don’t know for sure he’s going to come like a thief in the night. So we need to act like we’re going to live a long time, but also live like Jesus. Come back tomorrow. We need to live in that duality, and we need to help our children to live in that and have a long term vision. And accidentally, too many Christian families are going to serve up a short term vision, and they’re going to reap the bad rewards of that way down the road 3 to 5 years from now. The big complaint, the big worry, the big concern amongst the Christian church is going to be children are not that are now adults are not having children themselves.

So what can you do? What can you do right now? Dream more with your kids. Read the Bible more with your kids, specifically these scriptures in Psalm 127, Psalm 128, Psalm 37 um, constantly speaking life to your kids and dream with them. Won’t it be fun when you have a baby someday? And I get to be the grandma and like, just dreaming? What? What do you want on your wedding day? And, like, thinking about those different milestones in their life is so important as they’re growing up. Otherwise they’re going to be left to get their vision from the world and from what they see elsewhere. And it might not be biblical. And so we just want to encourage you guys today knowing what’s happening in the world, not being fearful of it, not being focused on it. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Keep your eyes on heavenly things and on the truth. But evaluate right now. What is the message that you’re sending your kids? Is it one that’s going to encourage them to have children, your grandchildren, or is it going to discourage them?

Thanks for joining us. See you next time.

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