Spiritual Survival Guide
5: Complicated Stuff
The best thing we can give our kids is a good example! If we’re going to be good examples to our kids, we have to have good ex- amples for our own selves. This means being choosy about who and where we’re going to allow ourselves to be around! Start the habit of church attendance while you’re still in. And try to not settle for just “church attendance.” Aim for church involvement! Allow your kids to “catch” you! Did you ever notice how kids imitate their parents? The values we want our kids to have will be more “caught” than “taught.” One huge thing our kids need to catch from us is a feeling of security. They need to have faith in us. They need to be able to depend upon us. This goes back to allowing our relationship with God to be the model for our rela- tionships with our kids. Are you secure in your faith relationship with Jesus Christ? Let me ask it in a different way: Is your faith “well-placed”? I observe too many people with “mis-placed” faith. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30) Jesus gives his sheep eternal life. Who are his sheep? All who have received him, repented of their sins, and trusted in him as Lord and Savior. Think on this: We are not his sheep because we follow him. We follow him because we are his sheep. Jesus says no one can snatch his sheep out of his hand. We don’t have security because we hold onto him. We have security because he holds onto us! If my faith is in me holding onto Jesus, it’s mis-placed. There’s no security in mis-placed faith. But if my faith is in Jesus holding onto me, it’s well-placed faith!
• 67 times more likely to be arrested by age 12
• 32 times more likely to run away
• 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
• 14 times more likely to commit rape
• 10 times more likely to abuse alcohol/drugs
• 5 times more likely to commit suicide
I learned how to be a father in the home in which I was raised. I do not blame my dad; it’s just that the way I was raised didn’t work out so well—I became an inmate, an addict, a drunk. But since I was now a Christian, I wanted to raise my kids differently. God was good to me. He provided a church where the men of the church kind of “adopted” me. They didn’t make it appear like they did—they probably didn’t even know that they did—but as a group of men, they displayed for me how to be a Christian man, husband and dad. I’m sure I didn’t pick up all they wanted me to learn, but without them I’d have been on my own. They were great! Not all inmates are going to get out soon and have the opportu- nities I had. But the changes have to start while we’re “in” and continue when we’re “out.” So, here are some things to think on: There’s only one perfect Father: God! The Bible is full of refer- ences to God as our Father, and ultimately, we learn how to be a father from God. We learn to relate to our kids the way our Father God relates to us as his kids. We must allow our relation- ship with God to be the model for our relationships with our kids.
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