SnapChat Parenting
And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and
Matthew 8:26
rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
Have you ever felt like parenting was the equivalent to sailing a fishing boat in a hurricane? If you haven’t, you will! Raising kids is one of the greatest challenges filled with the greatest potential for adventure and blessing. Parenting is the greatest spiritual adventure you will ever experience and will yield the greatest rewards. It also can bring pain!
When my first of 4 kids hit her teenage years our only online concerns were AOL instant message, dial-up access to the internet, and when to give our kids a flip-phone. There were no “Snapchat’s” in the dark of night under the comforter in her bedroom or Instagram “spam accounts” (your kid might have one)! Fast forward 12 years and her little sister was a student at a middle school where she needed either a smartphone or an iPad to complete her schoolwork. So, with instant access to the internet, Snapchat, and who knows what else, she jumped out of the van and danced up the school sidewalk into a whole new world of “likes” and curated fake-life images with non-stop selfies.
How do you raise a child to love Jesus in this world filled with the best-of-photoshop &
constant attacks against your child’s faith and identity?
As a parent, you have 2 foundational responses to all of the challenges your child faces: Fear or Faith. It sounds simple…sort of. You will either parent out of fear–frantically reacting to the latest threat to your child’s future, or you will parent from faith–carefully responding to challenges as you help your child navigate the pitfalls of culture from a biblical worldview.
Faith and Fear are fighting cousins; both are a response to the future. The healthy development of your child depends greatly on which cousin dominates your moments. It is entirely possible to engage in seemingly “spiritual” activities from a spirit of fear and cripple your child’s faith and be left wondering what happened.
Stay tuned to this space as we unpack these principles and seek the Lord’s favor for our kid’s future and His glory!
Great calm is possible!
