Are You Too Afraid to be a Parent?

            This morning I started to read the story in John 9 about a blind man who Jesus had healed.  It an awesome miracle story, and is the one about Jesus spitting in the mud.  (I always thought Jesus healing with his spit was odd.  As a side note to this I learned by going to The Holy Land in Orlando that the reason Jesus spit in the ground was because the Jews of the day were going around saying that when the Messiah came he’d be so anointed even his ‘spit’ would have healing.  Jesus was fulfilling their own words when he did this. I have always found that a cool bit of history) What jumped out at me about this story is what came later.  The high priests of the day were all up in arms because this man was healed on the Sabbath, so they called the parents in to testify that their son had been blind since birth.  Their reaction can be found in verse 20-22

²⁰ His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. ²¹ But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²² (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus  to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) (ESV)

            I read this kind of in jaw dropping shock and surprise.  Their reaction is not what I would have thought it had been.  Their son was a beggar, and had been blind since birth.  They are more worried about the possibility of being kicked out of the synagogue than they are the fact their son had just received sight.  You’d think they’d be jumping around excited.  One would think they’d ready to join the Jesus caravan themselves, but instead they feared what could happen to their family more.  I don’t want to come across as being too hard on these parents.  I’m sure they were probably in a measure of shock here.  It would have been a lot to take in.  But I just kept thinking how their son needed them to defend him in that moment, and it wasn’t like they didn’t but were willing to put themselves on the line either.

            I started to think of my own children.  Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on the planet.  While I’ll be the first one to say that my parenting has never been perfect, I want to be one of the first people to run toward the defense of them.  That doesn’t mean their perfect either, and I’d tell them if they weren’t.  What I’m saying here is that we all can’t parent out of fear.  Our children need to be more important to us then what the world thinks.  Our children need to see that they have their parents in their corner even when it’s not convenient.  As a parent of a teenager now, I can also add that they need to know that even if they don’t like your choices ultimately you have their best interest at heart. To continue on this line I hold ‘spiritual parenting’ in the same regard here as physical ones.  Raising children in the Lord is a huge challenge, and those kids too need to know that you’d come to their defense if the need arose. 

            We have to make the choice in our lives to defend what is right, and stand up for those who need it.  We will never gain ground if we fear man and society more than we fear God. According to Proverbs 31:8-9, we must be a voice for the voiceless.

            Remember God has awesome plans for your life.  Get excited!

*Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to get to hear Leigh Ramsey founder of the She Rescue Home and the ‘It’s Not OK’ campaign speak.  Her organizations helps reeducate and house girls rescued from the sex slave industry in Cambodia.  I’d like to recommend you check out her website and organization. http://sherescuehome.org/about

**Also next week I’ll be tagging along with Dan to a work trip, so my schedule will be a little off.  I’ll not be doing a Monday/Wednesday blog, but there might be one that pops up on Friday.  J  Love y’all.