I have started reading a remarkable book called Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus and in the forward was a chilling story that I thought I would share with you:
“What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over half a century ago, Presbyterian ministry Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastured), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No Ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.
This is scary—mainly because what Barnhouse describes is what most of us want for our children. Jesus or no Jesus, we just want them to obey, be polite, not curse or look at pornography, get good jobs, marry a nice person, and not get caught up in really bad stuff….” (From the forward of Give them Grace)
The rest of the book admonishes Christians to keep the “Christ” central in “Christian parenting.” The last thing I would want for my children would be to raise them to be moral citizens and then for Christ to reject them at his throne because their hope was in their own morality and not in his saving grace. This book is a good reminder of how to keep the Gospel central in our parenting and not create children that boast in their own righteousness. Although I have only read two chapters, I would highly recommend it thus far. Let us not forget Jesus!
