A Dixie Cup Prayer

Can I whine for a moment, Lord? Can I tell you how weary I am of how hard it is to remain faithful in a faithless world? How exhausted I am with the unrelenting cultural campaign to turn our children’s hearts away from You? Can I just vent a little bit about feeling so inadequate to recognize the subtle ways Satan diverts their eyes to evil while they wear me down to the point where I can’t see straight?

Sometimes I feel like we’re in a sinking ship bailing water with a Dixie cup. No matter how furiously we get rid of what the world throws our way, another huge wave crashes onto the decks.

Why is it so hard to say “No” to my kids when they just want to be doing what every other kid gets to do? Like FaceBook and Instagram, “harmless” secular music, television shows and movies, boyfriends, books that glorify witchcraft, wizardry, and vampires. The list goes on!

Why does all of this appeal to us even as it repels Your Spirit within us? Why do we want what turns our hearts from You?

How in the world can I keep an eye on it all, screening every post, checking every friend, following who and what they follow, watching what they want to watch, reading what they want to read, listening to what they want to listen? Multiply that by more than one child, and it’s literally impossible. I can’t do it, Lord!

You tell us the wide road that leads to destruction is easy, and many will find it. Perhaps its lure is popularity. Falling into the trap of wanting my children to feel like they belong and to know the acceptance of others. Wanting that myself, including with my own kids. 

The thing that gets me is that their desires for the things of this world aren’t only encouraged by friends outside the church; they are asking because it’s what all their friends from church are doing.

Lord, how is this happening? It makes the job of raising kids who are in the world but not of it so much harder!

You never promised easy, though, did You? In fact, You said we would face trials, persecution, and difficulty. I guess I’m just being a baby; I want it to be easier. You desired that too, didn’t You, in the garden, when You prayed to the point of sweating blood that the cup of the cross would pass by You?

Even as I whine, Lord, I know what I truly want. When my rant is exhausted, I am left with the truth that what I want more than anything is to walk the narrow road that leads to life with my family, no matter how sparsely traveled it may be. No matter how difficult it is to stay there. I want my children, when they no longer live under our rules, to follow You directly onto the narrow road of life because they love You and follow You there.

Don’t let me compromise Your best for my children in order to pursue a counterfeit Satan presents as better! Help me trust You exclusively to keep their hearts while doing exactly what You require of me as a Christ-following mom.

Thank you for James. He sees things so clearly. Where I want to waffle, he has no problem saying “No,” even if it makes him unpopular with our kids. Things that get so convoluted by popular thought in my mind are obvious to him. Thank you for his unwavering commitment to create a safe environment for our kids, even if it’s not the “fun” environment the world dangles before them.

Help us reject the temptation to check out for the night and instead invest that time in a safe and fun family culture. Help us muster our last ounce of energy to read a good book together or play a game. To take a walk or visit one of the many museums or historical attractions within an hour’s drive of our home. To have a family devotional after dinner. To swim together, serve together, give together. To have others into our home for games and dessert.

How can we tell our kids there are better things to do than watch television and zone out to electronics while we excuse ourselves to our bedroom for the evening to watch TV?!?!

Help me, Lord. Help us!

This fight is too great for me, Lord, but it’s not too great for You, and Christ within us, the hope of glory. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength and through the power of the Holy Spirit! We may be in the battle of our lives, but it is You who will win the war! Help me focus on how big You are, not how strong the pressures of the world feel against our family’s back.

I turn now to Your word to search out Your truth for myself and my family. Thank You that scripture holds every answer we need to live a life fully pleasing You. Lead and guide me, Holy Spirit, into all truth. Help us, Lord, to be unpopular and make unpopular decisions in order to be wholly Yours as parents and as a family.

In the mighty name of the only Savior, Jesus, I love You.

Shauna