It all begins with an idea.
If we start with problems young adults and older are having in their lives, what do we see? Issues with their faith, their marriages, their relationship to chemicals or pornography, difficulties with their mental health, with their physical health, with their finances, with living productive lives, with dealing with brokenness in their lives. If we seek to discover a source of many of these issues, what do we find? It becomes quite apparent that many of these problems can be traced back to something which happened in their childhood or didn’t happen. Now we start asking about the parenting, the grandparenting they had. What was going on and also what wasn’t going on in their families? What kind of leadership was being given or was there a lack of leadership?
Our American society and even our churches have often put the parenting role on the back burner. With all the technology and complexities of family living present today, it becomes obvious that the wisdom, the love, the limit setting, the modeling, the praying that family leaders are offering to their offspring are vital factors. They contribute to the future well-being and productive lives of their offspring. .
So what needs to happen? Starting with churches: parents and grandparents need to be trained, equipped and supported in ways that will build up the lives of their offspring. Many churches have overlooked or ignored clear Biblical teaching. In Ephesians 4:11-12 we are told that pastors and teachers are to equip church members for their ministries. In Ephesians 5:21-6:9 six ministries are lifted up. They are wife to husband, husband to wife, children to parents, parents to children, slaves (employees) to master (employers) and employers to employees.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9 lays out how parents are to be sharing the messages of God on a daily basis with their children, in the morning, in the evening, on the road. Proverbs, chapters 1 through 7 show parents admonishing their children to be wise and not foolish, to be guarding their hearts and not taken in by treacherous people. The truth is that one’s children will be encountering clever schemers. If the child is quite vulnerable to the ploys of such schemers, they are going to get hurt, traumatized and perhaps entrapped into some destructive lifestyle.
Adults Saving Kids has come to realize that many wonderful resources are available helping family leaders raise great kids. There are also many family leaders who have learned much from life. Seeing this, ASK believes what is necessary to stem the tide of brokenness and trauma is a movement of family leaders learning from the Bible, from present resources and from each other. There is plenty of gold out there to be mined. If family leaders become involved in this, their offspring will be safer, have more faith, be more productive, be less broken and give leadership in their future families. Not all, but many!
So the sharing of stories, the tools for making wise decisions, the work of intentional parents and grandparenting, the underlying work of the Holy Spirit and the praying for each other will make a major difference for the good in the precious lives we care about. The fervent use of God’s gift of prayer must undergird all people involved and the movement itself. Become another key link in this movement going forward. Let us know you are there and interested in how you can be part of this.
Goals of Parents Arise:
To save young people from unnecessary harm, trauma, addictions, entrapments, broken lives and loss of faith
To train and equip parents and grandparents in Christ to care, share, dare, bear with their offspring using tools and prayer to fend off schemers.
To assist congregations to equip family leaders for their home ministries.
To provide a structure by which all members of a congregation will be prayed for daily by other members.
To provide podcasts and a curriculum through which parents and grandparents can share wisdom, heartaches and support for each other.
To bring forth great kids who in Christ will give leadership in their homes, churches and community in the next generation.