Preparing Your Child For Hurricanes
The media does a great job of getting us ready for hurricanes. During this time of the year, there are many families glued to the television watching as hurricanes intensify off shore. At the same time, there are little eyes watching their parents deal with the potential of a hurricane within their home. As potentially destructive as hurricanes are, there is also a great opportunity for training … right in the eye of the storm.
Children look to their parents for strength when fearful situations approach. Nothing reveals the reality of our faith more than a situation where we are not in control and the outcome could be devastating. Rather than running around in a panic, parents must take advantage of the opportunity to draw those little eyes and hearts to God. For children, this can best be done by pointing out the way Biblical heroes dealt with their fear.
In 2 Chronicles 20 we find Jehoshaphat being forced to deal with a category 10 hurricane. Well, not exactly a hurricane, but the three armies that were moving in to ravage Judah might as well be a ferocious hurricane. Just like on the news, Jehoshaphat was minding his own business when he receives the news flash that Judah is about to be over run by three enemies at once.
What did he do? Verse three tells us that he was initially afraid, like any other human would be. But then he collected himself and realized two things. As the "parent" of Judah he had to supply calm and direction. As a "parent" who loved God, Jehoshaphat knew where to go for those answers. He called his people together to pray. He was not the answer they needed, but he knew that God was.
Every parent can learn from this first step. When Jehoshaphat was faced with a very fearful situation he turned to God for answers, and he taught his people to do the same. Parents do not have to have all the answers, but they do have to know where to go to overcome their fear. The hurricanes of life can be frightening, especially for a child whose parents don't point the family to the One who protects them.
When Jehoshaphat called everyone together for prayer, notice that he included the children. All Judah was standing before the LORD, with their infants, their wives and their children( 2 Chronicles 20:13 NASU). Why include the children? Because it was a training opportunity. Couldn't having the children there for that meeting make them more frightened? No, it was pointing them in the direction of hope. Plus it was teaching them what they would need to do when the storms of life came in the future.
After the time of prayer, the men of Judah did their part to get ready. They did not just pray and act like nothing was going to happen. They did all they could do to prepare for the coming storm. Did they know they couldn't possibly defeat that storm without God's help? Absolutely! But they also knew that they had to do what they were able to do, and then trust God to do the rest.
We learn from Jehoshaphat to teach the children to pray and then put the shutters up. But there is another thing we learn from this great leader. He looked for other people to encourage. As the day came for the battle (or storm in our case), Jehoshaphat looked around for people to encourage and point to God. In verse 20-22 he even had them sing praise songs.
How was he able to do that? He knew it was his job to lead them in the preparation, but more significantly it was his role to lead them to trust God. Jehoshaphat teaches us to take advantage of the impending storm by helping the children to learn one all important fact. The battle's not yours it's the Lord's (verse 15).
Children stand a chance of coming out of a hurricane with fear and having nightmares, or they can come through a hurricane learning that their parents trust God. This is a great life-changing lesson, and it is all up to how the parent handles the storm. Don't let these storms just threaten your valuables. Use the storm to teach something valuable. Prepare your children for the storms of life!