Parents, Teach Your Children to Lose Their Lives for Christ

Many parents pray for their children to become true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, but when they choose to go to a country where they can lose their lives at any time and be exposed to great persecution, it is the parents who stop them. I invite you to watch this video in which you will learn how parents should behave in such situations: 

I personally know a girl in whom the Lord put into her heart to go on a mission trip to a poor country, but she encountered great opposition, even on the part of her Christian mother. It took me a long time to help this girl understand that if the Lord Jesus called her to this country, she must go. 

Children must take up their cross and follow Christ 

In the Gospel of Matthew it is written: 

And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it. (Matthew 10:38-39 NASB)

Nowadays, people don’t really understand what it means to “take up your cross”. This word is used so often that it has lost its essence.

In the time of Jesus, the cross was a tool of torture. The cross was not something desired, it was taken by the one who was condemned to death, as was the Lord Jesus Christ. After the sentence was handed down, the person sentenced to death took his cross and carried it to the place where he was executed.

If we choose to be Christians, it is as if we ourselves sign our own sentence to go to death for Christ. If we choose to surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus, then our whole life will be a walk from the place where we were sentenced to the place of execution.

Children must be taught to follow the Lord Jesus 

We, the parents, are meant to teach our children to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We must show them in ourselves a worthy example to follow. I recommend that you study with the children the course ”Being a Disciple: Counting the Real Cost”. Motivate children to prepare for the mission and to capitalize on their lives for Christ. I recommend the training at the International Mission School – Precept Ministries Eurasia. .

Let us behave wisely, like spiritually mature people when we find out that our children have decided to give up their lives for the mission life. Even if they want to go to dangerous places, we must look at this as a blessing from God. Let us thank the Lord, because we have children who are ready to serve.

Translated by Nicoleta Filat