Last Updated on April 7, 2018
We are a family of many kids. Some grown and out of the nest, some in high school in the midst of cyberville, one in middle school, and even one beginning grade school. My husband and I love kids and would take (at least I would) a hundred more if the Lord said so. So with kids in different states than we live, those with different schedules than ours, many other things like afterschool activities, hobbies, spending time with friends, and so much more, how do we keep our children safe?
I have found two never-fail methods of safety for our kids. These are free, easily accessed, and readily available. They are also idiot- and anxiety-proof. I have over 25 years of trying and testing these methods of protection for my children. So I pass them on to you.
I love that these practices are biblical, written about constantly in Scripture, and available to me in an instant.
I don’t have to load them on my devices; they are ready to use at a moment’s notice. So what are these protection plans that I have come across? One simple thing broken up into two unique plans of action:
1. Conversations with my children. I spend a lot of time talking with my children. Talking about the things that are in our world, our culture, our church, the news, their friends, their good habits and bad habits, their clothing, any and everything that is or relates to them.
I want to know them. I want to support them. I want to encourage them and I want to protect them. So when one of my children told me, in anger, that I was weird, I was stunned. But then I remembered that I am an alien and stranger here on earth and that this world is not my home–so I am weird. I proceeded to jump up and down that it was noticed!
When another child informed me that marijuana should be legalized and it is legal in other states, and asked why it can’t be freely partaken of here, I told that child that it may be legal in some states, but we obey the law of the state in which we live and the law of the home in which we live… and marijuana isn’t legal in our home.
Our conversations don’t end there. We talk about everything! I am a no-conversation-off-limits kind of mother married to a no-surface-conversation man with a house full of conversationalists!
In this house, it is never too late to begin a conversation. It is never too late to revisit family history, friend drama, work ethic, or anything that may arise. I want my children to know the law of God and I need to have conversations with them to teach them. I am determined to know my kids by doing what Deuteronomy 6:7 tells us, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
2. Conversations with my God. I spend TONS of time talking to God. I believe it is one of the best tools of protection we have readily available to us. When kids don’t understand why you make different choices than other Christian parents or why marijuana isn’t permitted, I can talk to them till I am blue in the face and they may not come around or receive what I am saying.
But I have the greatest arsenal in my tool belt that is free to use when I am in a desperate place: prayer! I know God loves my children even better than I do so I trust Him when it seems like I am not having effective conversations with my children. No, I trust Him and talk to Him even when the conversations do seem effective! Talking with God allows me to release all that concerns me.
[verse reference=”Psalm:127:3″]Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.[/verse]
So if you want to protect your children from dangers seen and unseen, these are the two free protection plans I have used over and over and over again.
Robyn McKelvy has devoted her life to the care and building up of others. In her home, through the church her husband pastors and through years of speaking at Weekend To Remember Get-Away’s around the country as well as countless women’s events. Robyn is the mom of seventeen children, seven in heaven and nine amazing souls here on earth who have received her full attention from the time they were born or grafted into her family. Robyn’s book SOS – Sick of Sex is in stores now as is her devotional book, Say IT Loud: Becoming your husband’s personal cheerleader. Robyn has been a mom for 24 years and married to Ray for over 25 years.
Thank you for sharing this information. I find it helpful also to have conversations with God and my children. This reaffirms what’s needed from us as parents.