I watched as my three year old grandson was wheeled out of the emergency room fastened tightly to a gurney with a huge head brace encircling his tiny head. I arrived on the scene just in time to tell him that I loved him as men with medical equipment ushered him out to an awaiting helicopter. He was being flown to a larger hospital where a specialist for his kind of head injury was waiting to perform an operation on his brain to save his life. Both of his parents had tears streaming down their faces as they helplessly watched their beloved child being flown away.
It was just a typical trip to the grocery store with his mom and 2 year old sister. Except this time instead of walking beside mom in an orderly fashion he thought he would help himself to a few choices of his own. Mom quickly took control and Chad was lifted into the back of the grocery cart and told to sit down. Chad became defiant and in a split second he perched himself on the edge of the basket only to lose his footing and fall backwards onto the cement floor below.
Anyone who has ever been a parent has had to deal with childhood accidents of all kinds. Broken bones, lacerations and of course the occasional bug bite that causes an allergic reaction once again forcing you to rush to the emergency room. It’s just part of life, but how we react to the accidents illustrates to everyone whether we learned from the incident and changed our approach on how to protect them in the future!
This is the formula that every good parent must come to understand in order to once again walk into their child’s future without fear! The key to activating the knowledge that teaches every parent how to protect their child from an accident.
Parenthood is one of the most difficult jobs that two people will ever undertake. As a parent you must learn how to love beyond your ability to understand why, discipline in ways that take consistency, imagination and fortitude and protect your precious child from all of the horrors of life. This process alone can make any parent question their ability to stand up to the challenge of a child who knows how to take everything you think you know and make you feel like you know nothing at all!
This is the genius of the Almighty God on how he uses a small child to teach parents Spiritual wisdom. Knowledge that can’t be anticipated unless you have the responsibility of raising a child. A wisdom that produces insight in the hearts of those who cling to God in order to teach their children how to live the right kind of life. Most of all a God that demands you depend on Him in order for you to have success in your family.
Isaiah 41: 10, “Do not be afraid -I am with you! I am your God-let nothing terrify you! I will make you strong and help you; I will protect you and save you.”
This is what it takes to be the kind of parent that survives raising a child. This is what it takes to face a world that is filled with twists and turns that can drive any sane person fearing their ability to survive till the next problem. This is the reason as a parent you need God as a supernatural fighting force for your family. You must read your Bible so you know how to react to problems. You must pray about everything! And you must raise your children with Christian knowledge and loving discipline. Most of all you must understand that there will be times that you will fail!
In order to teach your children you must listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and do whatever the Spirit tells you to do. God equips us with the knowledge we need so we will never give up on our children. He gives us the ability to handle whatever problem Satan throws.
We live in a teaching world. A world surrounded by an unseen spiritual world of good and bad forces. A world of spirits that enter the minds of men and influence them on their quest to find the answers to what is good and what is bad.
Satan the demon of all evil will use rebellious behavior from a child to make a parent fill totally incapable of doing a good job. He will work in the minds of moms and dads making them get angry and discipline in the wrong way. He will destroy a marriage by having a child play one parent’s emotions against the others.
In order to protect our children we must understand who we are fighting against. Satan is the god of this world and his goal is to destroy families and make parents and children play the blame game when a child is in an accident. He wants to make us see our children as opponents and to hate them when something bad happens to them. The devils goal is to separate us from God by having us blame Him when we face something hard.
When Satan takes away the saving power of Jesus Christ then he has defeated families and rendered them helpless to do his will. He loves chaos and turbulence. He lives to replace love with hate. He does everything possible by influencing the hearts of men to give into their desire to roll up in a ball and become depressed and hate their families for causing the problem in the first place.
As parents we must understand the great game of life and our real opponent; Satan. God answers prayers when we give our problems to Him. But on the other hand everything that happens to us is a test. A test that teaches us endurance. A test that makes us better parents.
I Corinthians 10: 13, “Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.”
Parenting is the hardest job but it is also the same kind of role that God plays in each of our lives. God takes the bad things that happen to us in life and teaches us a multitude of different things. Like how to keep our cool when we face a difficult accident. How to stop blaming our mates. How to love unconditionally when a child is rebellious. How to pray in an emergency! He teaches us who our real friends are! Is your friends going to stand by you or are they going to blame you for the accident. Which of your family members you can count on, etc.
We live in a world where we must go through things in order to learn. But with God we can overcome all the things that happen to us. There may be a moment of sorrow, but in time Jesus changes it to a story of celebration of how you survived a horrible accident with victory.
Satan wants to isolate us from God and destroy the peace of a family. God on the other hand takes the accident and shows us how to defend ourselves against it happening in the future. God reacts in love and gives insight and knowledge to parents that are reaching out to Him for comfort and help. He tells us to pray the Lord’s prayer and to pray for protection from Satan!
Just one week before Chad’s head trauma his two year old sister rolled out of bed and broke her collar bone in two places. My son and his wife were panicked over their children’s accidents. They did everything possible to correct both problems by putting guard rails on their beds to having another person present when shopping. Nevertheless they still had to go through the pain of feeling helpless to their children’s suffering, but they learned valuable lessons on how to protect their children in the future.
Both children and parents survived their accidents for God answered all of our prayers because we ran to Him in our time of need. I was very proud on how our entire family rallied to their support. Each of us learned many valuable lessons, my other son and his wife put guard rails up on their young daughter’s bed. And all of my adult children, learned the danger of shopping carts and standing children, even if it’s just for a few seconds so they can see the toys on the higher shelves.
My daughter-in-law loves her children very much but unfortunately she learned other lessons from her children’s unexpected accidents. She had been running a day care for the past three years and after the accident many of the parents took their children even though no child had ever been harmed in her care. This is the reason why every person needs to understand Satan’s role in the game of life. We will at times fail according to the world, but when we put our trust in God, He will never abandon us and judge us like the world. He is our help and shield against Satan, who is the real enemy of children.
