{"id":909,"date":"2019-05-13T04:54:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T04:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=909"},"modified":"2020-04-17T00:05:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:05:51","slug":"think-tough-raising-kids-today-try-asking-first-century-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/05\/think-tough-raising-kids-today-try-asking-first-century-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"You Think It’s Tough Raising Kids Today? Try Asking First-Century Christians!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"unsplash-logoAswin\"
Aswin<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/i><\/b>How do you raise up children in Christ in this difficult world?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a really, good question\u00a0for parents\u00a0to ask today. The question is not just how do you raise up kids today? There are a million books out there from a million experts on how to do that. It\u2019s the\u00a0problem that there are many Christians who are raising their kids the best way they know how, they\u2019re raising them in church, and the kids are still walking away from the faith. The next generation is walking away from the faith at a cataclysmic rate, even though many of them were raised in church. So, what are we doing wrong? What can we do differently?\u00a0<\/span>And, not just raise up children in Christ, but how can we raise them in this difficult world? It\u2019s a nod to the fact that culture is rapidly changing from biblical principles, and it\u2019s becoming even more difficult today than it was when we were growing up. So how do we do that?<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to assume that if culture were more godly then raising good Christian kids would be super easy, right? Well, think about the 1950s, what many people would look back to as the golden age when culture lined up with biblical values. Well, all those kids raised in the 1950s became teenagers in the 1960s, and how did that turn out? The solution has got to be more than just culture, which should give us hope, because culture isn\u2019t going back to the Bible anytime soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would argue a good comparison could be the first century. Think of trying to raise your kids in Christ in the first few decades after Jesus. If you were Jewish, you were considered an outcast from the faith for believing Jesus was the Messiah and you were effectively cut off from your family and community. If you were Greek, you were abandoning the Roman gods and were susceptible to outright persecution from society and eventually the government itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one of these Roman cities, Ephesus, there was a strong Christian community in the city but there was such a backlash against this new movement that a riot started in the city against Christians and the Apostle Paul had to leave the city (Acts 19). After Paul left, the church remained, and there was still a city-wide hatred and resentment towards this new movement called Christianity. Try raising your kids in that environment. Try sending your kids to school in that culture. If they could figure out a way to raise their kids in a difficult environment, so can we.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you’d like to connect and see more of the content I’m working on, be sure to like my church Facebook page<\/a>. You can also find me on social media: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you raise up children in Christ in this difficult world? That\u2019s a really, good question\u00a0for parents\u00a0to ask today. The question is not just how do you raise up kids today? There are a million books out there from a million experts on how to do that. It\u2019s the\u00a0problem that there are many Christians…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42,6,8,9],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-christian","tag-kids","tag-parent","tag-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Think It's Tough Raising Kids Today? Try Asking First-Century Christians! - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you raise up kids in Christ in this difficult world? 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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