A Message for Parents: Emulating Christ During Hardship
As we continue to persevere through this pandemic, CCA’s Early Childhood Director Jan Lashbrook shares how the behavior Christian parents model can help their children develop resilience that’s rooted in the Lord’s peace and faithfulness.
I think we can all agree that we’ve all had to adjust to a “new normal.” This season has forced some unexpected changes in our lives and in the lives of our children.
Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child published a brief entitled The Science of Resilience. In their research, they found that one of the predictors for a child’s success in life is the early development of resilience, which is “an adaptive response to serious hardship.” The children who develop resilience in the face of difficulty are those who show some degree of natural resistance to adversity and have the support of at least one stable and committed relationship with a parent or other adult while they’re going through the hardship.
We know that children tend to model the behavior of the significant adults in their lives, so those adults’ peace and trust in God during the storms of life really does matter to our children.
Deuteronomy 7:9 says, Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations. That’s where our peace comes from, and as we share our faith and trust in God with our children through the good times as well as the hard times, they begin to see that no matter what happens in life, they can trust a faithful God who loves them and keeps His covenant with us.
When we get to the other side of this pandemic, it will be important for all of us not to forget how God brought us through these last few months and to share those memories with our children over and over.
no matter what happens in life, they can trust a faithful God who loves them and keeps His covenant with us.
Joshua chapters 3 and 4 tell the story of how God guided and protected the Israelites and performed a miracle to allow them to cross the swollen Jordan river on dry ground. After the whole nation of Israel crossed over, God asked them to take 12 stones, representing the 12 nations of Israel, and place them in that spot, so they would remember what He had done for them. And whenever their children asked them why those stones were there, they would remember and tell their children of God’s faithfulness.
He is faithful. May we be reminded of the holy privilege we have as parents to point our children toward this truth.
Those stones of remembrance in our journey, shared with our children, will help them develop the resilience and trust in God as their Provider, Protector, and the Healer who will carry them through whatever storms of life they may face in the future. He is faithful. With Mother’s Day this weekend and Father’s Day approaching next month, may we be reminded of the holy privilege we have as parents (and grandparents!) to point our children and grandchildren, regardless of their age, toward this truth.
Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.” -Joshua 4: 21-24
Jan Lashbrook is the Early Childhood Program Director at Calvary Christian Academy. She and her husband are “empty-nesters,” having raised three children who are all grown and married. Their youngest attended CCA for 12 years, graduating in 2012.
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