Intentional Parenting in the Wake of Steubenville Tragedy

A must read from Ann Voskamp today:

After Steubenville: 25 Things Our Sons need to know about Manhood

Boys and men, girls and women have lost their way in our sin-soaked culture. To raise up godly men and women who can and will change the world for Christ, we have to be intentional. That means educating and arming ourselves, both with the Holy Spirit through prayer, and with discipleship materials. We can't afford to wing it because among our youth, Satan is winning.

Proverbs 1:8-9 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

We all need to make a commitment before God: That we will make discipleship as important in our daily lives as Jesus did. It's so easy to get distracted and spend time on things we deem either more fun or less stressful than intentional parenting. And it's so easy to think...won't Sunday school teach these things? Or the youth group?

How did Jesus disciple? First, he invested his time, living life with his students. He spent three intensive years with them, day and night, and then he sent the Holy Spirit to continue the Counseling.

Deuteronomy 11:19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise

If we sign our children up for this and that program--programs that we as parents are not participants in--as well as send them away to school, how will we have time to disciple them (if the world spends more time with them than we do)?

Add up the minutes you spend discipling on any given day. You might be shocked.

We have to make tough choices...choices the world and our friends and family might not agree with.

Our jobs as parents? To be disciples of Jesus ourselves, and to make disciples of our children.

Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.

What Steubenville teaches? Satan is winning. A distracted generation of parents are spending more time with Facebook, Twitter and Smart Phones than they are with their children. Distraction is a dangerous problem in our modern world...none of us are immune.

The stakes have never been higher. Not since Sodom and Gomorrah have we seen such blatant, rampant sin.

Intentional. To save our children, we have to be intentional.

Dennis Rainey, a very intentional father, took his teenage sons to a donut shop regulary and went through the book of Proverbs with them over and over. He asserts it was the best thing he'd done for his sons. Proverbs has much to teach our sons and our daughters. We would do well to make this Book a regular fixture at the family table.

What other intentional things can we do? How many family meals do we have per week? How can we maximize them? How many Bible reading sessions do we have per week with our children? How can we maximize those?

How many question and answer sessions do we have with our children? Can we write up quick scripts for family meal time, asking them such as...

..."What would you do if someone showed you a nude photo?"

..."If all the girls are wearing tight jeans or low-cut tops, do you feel you have to as well? Why or why not? What does God say about our bodies?"

..."What would you do if someone told you a rude joke?"

..."Or if someone gossiped about another student?"

What life situations might come up for them, at their ages? How can we direct them to biblical truth in regard to these situations? We can make it a family game and they can write up questions for us as well.

What works for you? What intentional things are done in your home?