CURRENT RADIO SERIES All in: The Family   CURRENT TV SERIES All in: The Family

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Proverbs 1:10 If someone dumped a pile of smelly, dirty trash in your family room, you’d probably be incensed! Yet how many families allow the garbage of our culture into our homes every single day? Did you know the average home today has three TVs, three radios, two CD players, one computer, two DVD players, and one video game system? That’s a lot of the world getting into our family’s heads! And that’s a lot of the impurity and depravity of this world getting into our homes. The best parental control isn’t the movie rating system or the television and video game rating system. The best parental control system is you, moms and dads! Why? Because we’re called to protect our children’s purity. The way we do this is by providing reasonable rules and boundaries regarding media consumption, computer use, dress, and your kids’ friends. First Peter 5:8 says, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” This includes your kids and mine! So we must fight the good fight of faith, and that includes displeasing our kids at times in order to protect their purity. WISE FAMILIES ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE TO LIVE MORALLY PURE LIVES.

No Reason to Fear

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.”
Psalm 121:3–7

I read about a little girl who was making the transition to sleeping in her own room at night and was struggling with her fear of the dark. She didn’t like being on her own when she wasn’t able to see. When her mother came to tuck her in, the four-year-old pointed to the moon shining outside her window. “Mother,” she asked, “is the moon God’s light?” “Yes,” said her mother. The girl’s next question was, “Will God blow out His light and go to sleep?” And the mother replied, “No, my child. God never goes to sleep.” Then with the simplicity of a child’s faith she said, “Well, so long as God is awake, I am not afraid.”
The basis for our confidence is not a belief that nothing will ever go wrong. The notion that God’s children never suffer the consequences of living in a fallen world sounds attractive, but it is not true. He does not promise to make us comfortable, but to make us like His Son. But He also promises to keep us in His care and only allow us to be touched by those things that are a part of His plan for us. He never takes a day off, and He never leaves us to face trouble on our own. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

God’s unfailing love and care for us give us the basis to trust Him even when we cannot see His plan.