Pastor’s Podium: Courageous Parenting

By Harold Warner

We’ll hear many references to courage throughout this year because, like the psalmist, “my heart overflows with a godly theme” (Psalm 45:1).

The Call of Courage is a theme that carries the ability to rally our hearts, for sure, and this is why I preach it to myself as well as to our congregation.

More importantly, it is vital to a life of faith. It resonates because courage – along with temperance, justice, and wisdom – has long been recognized as a cardinal virtue of life.

Peter wrote, “In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence” (2 Peter 1:5, AMP).

Courage as a cardinal virtue is not connected to any ecclesiastical authority. It originates from the Latin word credo, which means hinge. Courage is something pivotal. The doorway of destiny and a well-lived life hangs on courage and moves because of it.

If when we think of courage, we can remove ourselves from defaulting to the bravery of the battlefield and see it instead as foundational to all of life, then we will hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Life, for everyone, is a call to the exercise of courage.

This is especially true when it comes to marriage, family, and raising children.

All are inherently acts of courage, since to honor God in these pursuits will almost always require going against the false cultural narratives swirling about them.

So much of what has been labeled as “culture wars” has been about sex and sexuality, gender and identity, and the definition and foundations of marriage and family.

Let’s be honest, raising children has always been wonderfully difficult and most parents have heard the Holy Spirit’s encouragement to “be strong and courageous.”

Who can argue the immense courage in the lives of the couple from Nazareth. Imagine the whispers of outright slander over their child’s conception. The child was miraculously conceived? Oh, really, that’s what you’re calling it?

Joseph and his young wife, Mary, had to have the courage to trust in God’s ultimate vindication.

In the Temple, Simeon told of her child’s great impact as Messiah. Then he said to Mary directly, “And the things that happen will be painful for you—like a sword cutting through your heart” (Luke 2:35).

Joseph courageously led his family to flee for temporary asylum in Egypt when the life of Jesus was threatened by Herod’s murderous rage.

The courageous parenting of Moses’ parents is forever hallmarked in Hebrews 11:23: “It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.”

Okay, a little bit of Bible trivia: What were the names of Moses’ parents?

They were Amram and Jochebed, and here are a few courageous components to their faith.

First, they had children in what many would describe as a time of crisis. The Hebrews had been enslaved in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

Pharaoh’s fear of God’s blessing on Abraham’s descendants was so intense that he issued a decree of infanticide. Every male child born was to be drowned in the River Nile.

Even against this backdrop, Amram and Jochebed’s love resulted in a beautiful baby boy.

Today there is a false “religious” narrative that says if people really cared for the planet they would either stop having children or significantly reduce their numbers.

I call it religion because it is not science. Over fifty years ago Paul Ehrlich published his book, The Population Bomb, stoking fears that the earth was being over-populated and we would face dire consequences.

His misguided premise is recycled now in the whole climate change debate. This pseudo-eco-science presumes to dictate what we eat, what heats and cools our homes, and what powers our automobiles.

Now it seeks to regulate the size of our families. Ask the Chinese how well this has worked out.

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first son, Archie, the prince told conservationist Jane Goodall that, where children were concerned, their goal was to be “two, maximum!”

This is disturbing, not because of the projected family size (which is an individual matter) but rather the motivation behind it.

Prince Harry, in classic virtue-signaling, went on record that their plan was “for the sake of the planet.” I’m glad that Moses’ parents didn’t say, “It’s wrong to bring a child into the world given the current situation.” Instead, they believed that “children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him” (Psalm 127:3).

The second element of their faith was the courageous recognition of God’s destiny in their children’s lives. Psalm 127:4, 5 continues: “Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!”

This symbolism of children as arrows conveys the idea of purpose and destiny. The careful crafting and fashioning of an arrow capable of striking a target reminds us of the direction, purpose, and potential in a child’s life.

Leonard Sweet in his book, A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café recounts a small town discussion:

“Has anything significant happened here recently?”

“Just a boy born down at Tom Lincoln’s place.”

Just the birth of Abraham Lincoln! Similarly, Moses’ parents saw “that God had given them an unusual child.” Other translations say, “they saw he was a beautiful child.”

This is more than a cute baby picture that evokes an Oh, isn’t he adorable? The faith that gave Amram and Jochebed the courage to defy the king’s orders was in the promise of destiny they recognized in the birth of their child, Moses.

The final aspect of courage that prompted them to hide Moses for three months – and to carefully and lovingly prepare him a small ark of safety – was this: “They were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.”

Overcoming the ubiquitous voice of fear and lies is intrinsic to all faith and to courageous living.

When their courageous faith as parents was exercised in the face of the threats and challenges of their times, an intersection with Providence occurred.

Moses was saved from the river by the daughter of the very king who wanted him dead, and Moses was adopted into the royal family. He was nursed and cared for in those critical early years by his own mother. This is one of those amazing “God stories” that run throughout Scripture.

I don’t want to stretch the analogy too far, but whether looking back to learn from history, or peering ahead into what the future holds, courageous faith will be any parent’s trademark. To enumerate all of the areas where this is true would require another article.

My aim is to say to every parent: Be strong and courageous.

Psalm 127 begins with the truism, “Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.” God is in your corner and He wants to en-courage you. Encouragement is more than a pat on the back; it means He wants to put courage into your soul.

Discouragement is to take courage away from someone, and it is one of Satan’s favorite tools. The world we live in constantly seeks to discourage us.

A couple of years back, I was asked to speak at the 8th grade graduation in our Quest 119 Bible Hour. I did a Q&A session where the kids had access to ask me anything.

Miss Jessica curated the questions beforehand, ten in total. There’s no way I can get to all ten in the time allotted, I thought, but then I noticed that three of them were similar. These all asked, in some form, why bad things happen in life.

This is a question that has challenged and occupied some of the greatest minds down through the ages.

It is also something I’m familiar with; in fact, it is a theme in my book writing project.

Noah Rubi was in that class. I knew he played football, and that brought a flash of inspiration.

I put him on the spot: “Noah, you play football, is that right?”

“Yes.”

“What position do you play?”

“Defensive end.”

“So one of your jobs is to rush the passer, is that true?”

“Yes.”

“So, when you rush the passer, what is your goal?”

“To put him on the ground,” he said simply.

“Ah-ha!” I said. “Class, that is what life is always trying to do to each one of us – since we’re all pretty much a bunch of eighth-graders.”

Here is where Jesus gave us critical information and promises. In John 16:33, the Lord Jesus said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

First comes the Lord’s provision: “that you may have peace in Me.”

Peace. What an important commodity for life! This is why almost every epistle begins with the greeting, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

His provision is followed by insight into the true nature of life in this world: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.” That’s His way of saying life is always trying to put you on the ground, to dis-courage you.

Then He concludes with the ultimate reality. “But take heart (have courage), because I have overcome the world.” You and I don’t have to live as victims. We can push forward in faith with Christ’s overcoming dimension in everything we do.

That is the essence of courageous parenting.