The last Keepers At Home

The 'Bumper Teen Edition' is filled with great articles, letters to parents and letters from teens to teens.

This issue is unique to Keepers At Home and will be a blessing to everyone who reads it.  Extra copies will be printed to give away to all of your friends.

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Blessings to you all

EDITORIAL

Dear Ladies, mothers, daughters, grandmothers,

What a blessing and privilege it is to bring to you, this edition of Keepers At Home.  The Lord spoke clearly to me many, many months ago about committing  an entire  edition of the magazine, to teens.  Wherever I go, I am confronted by a great sadness within families, as their young children, raised in Godly homes, having given their hearts to God and been blessings within their families, at some point make a decision to choose a lifestyle outside of God’s will and in  opposition to their family.

The pain for many of these families is so intense, not just for the parents, but for siblings who are losing a family member.

Having almost 3 teens of my own now, I am beginning to glimpse how  determined the enemy is to undermine our authority as parents, confuse our young ones, and cause chaos and confusion within Godly families. 

Being  a  “watcher” of people, and a questioner  who much too often asks,

 “ Why is this so??”

I have tried to see some patterns, look for answers and analyze  what is going on.  I was looking for common threads perhaps to then eliminate the possibility of this happening in my own family .  ( Silly me, thought I could control God!!)

As parents, our hearts desire is that our children avoid all of the pitfalls and mistakes that we have made, and for them to enjoy a relationship with God and an abundant life.  As parents, everything we do, is aimed at raising confident, mature and strong Christian adults. When things just don’t work out that way, we are quick to blame ourselves, our lack of “good” parenting, our own weaknesses and character flaws. Or have you blamed your church for lack of good leadership and example, the education system for pouring so much junk into our children?  I’m sure that if we just  found out the cause, then we could fix it .  Right????

I looked at  some of the external factors that might be the culprit.  Some  families I know had T.V’s, some families didn’t; some had one parent unsaved; some had 2 amazing, Godly parents;  some home schooled,  others didn’t.  I went through all sorts of different scenarios and asked lots of questions of parents who were grieving, to help me understand what was going on. Thank God that in His grace, He stopped me and reminded me again, of the nature of the battle we have on our hands.  In His mercy, he reminded me again, that He was the solution!

“The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy.  I have come that you might have abundant life”.  John 10:10

For our struggle is not against a human opponent, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers in the darkness around us, against evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm.  Ephesians 6:12

Our battle is with the powers and principalities of this world.  Not denying that we as parents, have a responsibility to learn and grow in our parenting, to seek advice, to read good books and magazines (like Keepers AT Home :) to eliminate the things in our home that undermine God’s work in our children’s lives, but foremost,  we need to be on our knees, with the  Lord’s weapons in our grasp.

2Co 10:4  For the weapons of our warfare are not those of the flesh. Instead, they have the power of God to demolish fortresses. We tear down arguments .

We pray.  We learn from Job, that we can ask God to place a hedge of protection around our children.

Job 1:10  Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side?

We fast. Mat 17:21  But this kind goeth not out save by prayer and fasting

Ladies, parents, women who are trusting our Father, to guide us and our children

“Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord?  Him (that’s us) shall He (God) teach in the way that He should choose.  He (us) himself shall dwell at ease.

Pw 25:12-14

Continue to reverently and fear God.  He will teach us the way and we can know with confidence that He is in control and has our children in the palm of His hand.  The promise?  That we shall dwell at ease.

There are 2 articles, ‘Spirit of the world’ and ‘Lords Army’ that I have included in this edition of KAH.  I found both of these very convicting and convincing for myself! Having said that, I must confess that in our home, we have not yet reached the ideal that these articles portray .  Mike and I are continuously reassessing our choices to allow or disallow our children to go, to watch, to wear, and seeking God’s wisdom in the practical issues of life with our teens.  Each child is so different and we have learned that what is fine for one child, is not appropriate for another.   We have allowed our third child to do things at a younger age, because she has just gone along with the older two and at times we have regretted this. We watch, we learn, and we allow God’s grace to cover a multitude of our mistakes.

I remember asking a friend once for advice about one of our children and her response was “ well there hasn’t been a book written about her yet”, so it was up us, to be seeking God’s wisdom for her.   I thought that I could just copy others, and hope that what works for them would work for me, but praise God, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, each of us as individuals and God’s way for one is not the same for another.

If you are  reading this magazine and in the position of having a child who has chosen to walk the path of a prodigal  and are grieving, please be encouraged by this edition of Keepers At Home.  The pain is real, the uncertainty is real and the questions of “why”   cannot be dismissed. Please read the wonderful article by Chris Field. I have also included a list of books, web sites, and articles that I  recommend to you towards the end of this edition of KAH. Do not despair or give into guilt, condemnation or hopelessness.  Pray with faith, believing that God is able to do abundantly and exceedingly more than we can ever hope.

  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.  Joel 2:25  

Cheryl