Ethan: 0:00

Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

0:08

Man, did I get a reality check about a week ago when my grandchildren, two of them from out of town came to stay. And two that are in town spent the day in my house for about four or five straight days. This is raising joyful children in an angry world. I am your host, Paul Osborne. The chaos, the craziness of having a bunch of kids in the house, but what a blessing it is. It's such a reality check. All of a sudden, your short term memory just is gone. Your house becomes a distraction factory. There's meals and menus and deciding, Oh, who's capable of doing certain things. And then when the younger sibling who, you know, isn't capable, Oh, then you've got to deal with their emotions. You've got to judge the difference in their rational capacity of the youngest to the oldest and what conversations you can hold about liberties. And some get given those liberties and others don't. And then on the third day, of course, the youngest one now becomes ill. And now my wife has to find healthcare and we've got to get her some prescriptions and you know, just the whole chaos of raising kids. Anyone that doubts having children under your roof is a totally different perspective on life, is either a fool or has never had children. As a grandparent, I wondered, how did we ever do this? How do we get anything done? And I can tell you, it wouldn't have happened if it isn't for moms. There's no doubt about that. But the thing I want to zero in on is this chaos. This can lead us to this temptation then of two things. One, you just sort of let the ball roll. Boundaries go on movies and game boards and, you know, digital screens and you just abandon what should be considered reasonable time just to get a break. That's one thing we got to be a little bit aware of. But the bigger issue how easy it is to prioritize everything over soul care, because everything's happening right now. And so procrastination of spiritual care becomes very easy because all these immediate decisions and dozens of actions, the breakfast and getting your teeth brushed and getting dressed and all that and putting stuff away. It's nonstop. So how do we get focused? How do we maintain that? I want to suggest something that most of us are very uncomfortable discussing. Something most people never talk about, not even in church. And that is the subject of hell. Now we all know about heaven. See, we eulogize everyone in the world. When anyone dies, there's never a consideration that they're not going to heaven. We've got this soft version of the heresy of universalism. That's the belief that there's no hell. And our eulogies, oh my gosh, our eulogies are easily confused. They become works, righteousness, maturity of the person we're, we're honoring. It's all measured in task and talent and goal achievement. And so it's easy in this kind of thinking this sort of culturally relevant faith that doesn't recognize The eternal destiny of the damned push teaching mind and the spirit out to a later But the Bible does teach us about how I don't like to get involved with this. Did Jesus talk more about heaven or did he talk more about how that is not the point? The point is he spoke a great deal about hell and we know the description is horrifying. We know that the road or the path to it is wide. We know the gate to heaven is narrow. He taught us not to fear someone who could kill the body, but the person that could kill the body and the soul. Now I've been reading through, The Divine Comedy by Dante. You can look at this. On Hillsdale college. There's a professor named Steven Smith that takes you through this and it's free and I would recommend this. It's a poetic understanding. It's not scriptural, but it brings scriptural thinking into this poem because I think it helps us understand. How people get to perdition. There's a couple of characters that I want to throw out. The first one is a woman, a beautiful woman named Francesca. Now Dante has this messenger named Virgil. He's the poet who's constructing all this. And they meet Francesca, who is a beautiful woman, who's also spent her life in adultery. And they wonder, Francesca, how did you get here? And she says, Amore, Amore, Amore. Remember that old Italian song, That's Amore? Love made me do it. Man, this is starting to sound like American culture. So Dante and Virgil ask, well, are desires subjugated to reason? In other words, are desires, the servant, are they underneath your reason? Or, is reason subjugated to your desire? Oh, especially if we're talking about God's informed reason. Her response, my lover and I read a book about it. Ah, see, it wasn't so much reason, but it was whose reason. Which book? Whose constraint? This is what the culture is constantly pounding your family with. The culture of you love who you love and God's reason and constraint around human sexuality and romance. Note that, that is rejected in this culture. And when it is, It is even considered it has to serve the desire. It doesn't constrain it. It's a question of which one is the servant and which one's on top. In an American culture and most of the West, your desires, that's the preeminent, that's the hierarchy of needs right out psychology. And where does this thinking take you, however, as this old 700 year old poem tells us? It takes you to perdition. Now there's another character that I also think is confronting American thinking. They meet Ulysses. Ulysses is an adventurer. He's a sailor from The Greek mythology, he is seeking is adventure and knowledge, adventure and knowledge. And he convinces his crew to come sail with him to seek more adventures and to gain wisdom. Doesn't this sound like the bucket list? And he arrives at the pilgrimage at Mount Purgatorio. That's where you're really going to find out who God is. But as he can see it. The sea drowns him and all of his crew. Why? Well, as Dr. Smith points out, he and his companions drowned in the sea because they didn't take the adventures with God. And Virgil and Dante ask, how did all of these sailors abandon all of their responsibilities, throw away all form and manner? Ha, he says. Because we gave a speech, he were told that they did not need to live like a brute, in other words, like an, like an animal that has to have restraints and boundaries, right? Sounds almost like an athletic shoe. No boundaries. See, Ulysses and these folks who want to chase wisdom and experiences, which is what we're told to chase with our children all day, if we do it without God, and that's the major part of this, this is Montaigne, this is Ian Rand, this is no boundaries slogan of American culture. So what sounds like freedom, It turns out to be an illusion, and the illusion leads us into slavery and destruction. See, the Christian version of growing up, as Paul describes it, is to see what truth is and to reject lies. He says, then we will no longer be infants. Tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. His instruction, speak the truth in love and we will grow to become in every respect the mature. See, this, this issue of, Taking the time to spiritual care, to soul care, is important. It's easy in the chaos of having all these kids in the house and all this immediacy. But it should not drive us to procrastination. It should actually bring us to an awareness that we need God to grow our kids up. And so it should push us to a place. It's there, the church, to help us as parents, so that when we're in the presence of God, it says where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am. Jesus is a church. Jesus name, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in the the water of baptism. We're told that faith comes by hearing the word of God, the messenger sent by God, depending on your tradition. The body and blood. Of Christ are present in the Eucharist. There is this, this amazing presence of God. And while we need to have, yes, some human wisdom, but our human wisdom is insufficient until our souls are exposed to the promises until the Holy Spirit transforms our kids. It's not going to work like algebra one and algebra two, some scholastic progression. Yeah. It has to be understood in God sending his message and coming to meet us. To open the eyes and the hearts of our kids. The craziness ought to drive us to want to have their soul care and get them near God. And that's the way that we're going to grow up. Next time I want to join in a conversation about how we plant truth into the heart of children despite all this chaos. And when we think about eternal destination, it should drive us to prioritize the soul care of our kids. The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong. Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.