Danger: Easy Road Ahead

Many times when we hear of parents taking their children out of the typical American life to serve the Lord in another location, we wonder if that’s the best and wisest thing to do for their children. Are they being irresponsible or even selfish? Are they putting themselves before their kids? Aren’t they worried about the effect their choice will have on their children?

Funnily enough, I find myself more concerned over what will happen to my kids if I keep them here in this easy, self-focused lifestyle. While the thought of going to some far-off, hard place isn’t something that makes me feel all giddy inside, it does seem like in some respects there would be so many more opportunities to live a life like Jesus in front of my kids.

I want them to chase after God and not the things of this world. As they grow older, I can see where their weaknesses lie. We all have something. In college, all my partying roommates had a goal to get me drunk, just once. That was never a temptation for me and it never happened. Now, had their goal been to send me on a month-long vacation to some of the finest resorts in the world and get me completely distracted from the Lord, they would probably have had better luck.

In America, we have the opportunity to satisfy all the desires we can come up with. Want to have the perfect body? Diet, exercise, and get plastic surgery. Spend your life chasing physical perfection. Want to have everything that money can buy? Everyone will admire you for going to college and making a successful career for yourself. It’s the land of opportunity, right? Want to drown your sorrows with drugs or alcohol? You can’t get away from it. Want to find the perfect person to gratify your every craving? Just try out as many as you want. Marry someone without a care in the world, because it’s so easy to undo the whole thing. And the list goes on…

My unceasing prayer for my children is that they want nothing more than Jesus. I pray that they will not chase the things of this world but chase the Lord with everything that is in them. I wonder, though, as I struggle daily with the distractions and pleasures of this world, if they’ll be able to do it in this culture. By the grace of the Lord, they can, but it is a sobering thought.

And so I don’t ask those leaving this country how they can do this to their kids. I ask the Lord to protect my kids from the dangers here. Not violence or starvation or wild animals ready to attack or preventable disease. But affluence and ease and pleasure and the lies of the enemy that tell us this life is all about our happiness. I pray that they will love the Lord their God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. No matter our location, that is my desire for my family.