Has the thought ever crossed your mind that maybe the decision to have children wasn't such a good one, considering how wicked the world is today?  Sometimes I get a little nostalgic for the "good ole days", days that apparently happened before I was even born.  I hear my parents talk about the times when nobody locked their doors because the neighborhood was safe.  I listened to them go on and on about how everyone looked out for you and your children.  I secretly wish for the days when sex wasn't a marketing tactic for incresing shampoo sales!  Yeah, the good ole days...

I hate to admit that I have allowed myself to think that, although my children are the greatest of blessings to my husband and me, maybe this is a terrible time for them to have been born.  Just look around, the world is so very wicked.  It is such hard work to keep them innocent and pure.  Cartoons aren't safe, commercials aren't safe, actually... TV isn't safe!  I can't think about not locking my doors (and even deadbolting them), my neighbors looked terrified when I walked up to them to introduce myself, and let's not even start in on the current fascination with witchcraft... Harry Potter, Twitches and the sort.  Homosexuality has become the new and popular "minority agenda" to fight for (Romans 1:26-27) and Christians, well, we are the people that the world loves to hate! (St. Mark 13:9-13)

It can be a bit saddening and even depressing if I don't stop to think - Who Is My GOD? 

One of my children's favorite videos is by NEST Family Video - Esther.  One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Mordecai tells Esther that she could have been born for "such a time as this".  Mordecai must have been terrified of the thought that the young woman that he raised as his own child may have to lose her life to save her people.  He was sending her to a king that was hateful, destructive, unreasonable.  Still, Mordecai instructed her to go and plead for the lives of her people, perhaps this is the reason why she was here - this could have been her purpose... (Esther 4:13-17)

That started me to thinking.  I have taught my children that their God is omniscient (all-knowing) and I have taught them that their God is omnipotent (all-powerful), I have even taught them that their God is omnipresent (everywhere all the time and all the time, everywhere).  Could it be that my children, your children, were born by Divine Providence to be here for such a wicked time as this?  I think so!

It is true that the world is growing to be more wicked than it has ever been since Creation.  Mankind's heart is growing increasingly hardened against the knowledge of God and His Christ.  We've read through to the end of the story (the Book of Revelations) and despite the many ministers that would have us believe that better days are coming, the Bible bears witness to a different tale.  It is not going to get better, it's going to get worse.  Think about that.  Of the millions of people that have been born since Adam and Eve, God has chosen to allow us to live NOW!?!?  Not everyone is alive now.  Peter and Paul and the early Church, they are no longer on the scene.  Moses and Abraham died centuries ago.  Who will God look to to continue His work here through to the end?  He will look to us and our children!

Parents, our children were born for a specific purpose - to contend with the enemy in the gates!  We have been entrusted with the awesome responsibility of preparing an army for the Lord that will march fearlessly into this spiritual battle during the most wicked times in history!  God is preparing His army, an army of young soldiers who have learned the scriptures from infancy and believe that God is Who His Word says that He is!  More so, they will believe that THEY ARE who God's Word SAYS that they are!! (St. Mark 10:14-15)

The more I think about this, the more sobering a thought it is.  I don't have time to be selfish.  I don't have time to be wrapped up in my own little world of sorrow.  I don't have time to worry about obtaining the trappings of the world!  (St. Luke 21:34-36)  I have a very important job to do.  My children will either walk with God or they will fall victim to the world system that is trying so desperately to destroy them.(St. Mark 8:34-38)  I believe that if I prepare them, if I fall humbly at my Saviour's feet and request His direction, if I sacrifice my little life for theirs, then they will not only survive these end times, but they will thrive under the mighty Hand of God and bring many souls to Calvary!

Moms, Dads, we have been called to prepare this mighty army of God!  What a tremendous honor the Lord has placed on us!  Not every parent has been called to this specific duty.  Many parents have lived and died before now.  Here WE are!  This is an awesome (and weighty) responsiblity!  Let us not be like the parents of that generation which rose up and did not know their God!  We must do more than march our children into church!  We must do more than pray over our food.  We must do more than wear the uniform of Christians.  It will not be enough to "have a form a godliness, but deny the power thereof"!  We must model a holy life before them, we must show them how to live a dedicated life, a sanctified life, a spiritually warfaring life.  We must demonstrate to them what a life full of the Holy Spirit can do!

Our children are not here due to bad timing.  No, they are here by Divine Order.  I would like to think that the only one wishing that they had been born at an earlier time in history is the enemy whose kingdom they will help to destroy!  Our children were born for this specific purpose and we were born to prepare them for such a time as this!