Building resilient faith: preparing our kids now for opposition.

As parents we have so many longings for our kids. It is pretty natural to want our kids to be happy and healthy, to find friends who are a good influence, and to generally fit in (just to name a few). If we are Christian parents, hopefully our greatest longing is for them to trust and follow Jesus as their Lord. The question is, is trusting and following Jesus compatible with our other desires for them? Specifically, can they both trust in Jesus and ‘fit in’ in the world today? 

If we long for our children to be saved, then we need to be prepared for the fact that they might not fit in comfortably. We can equip our kids to be resilient in the world today by being honest about the fact that trusting and following Jesus will very likely lead to opposition from the people around them. Especially in a world where Jesus and the things he stands for are becoming more and more unacceptable.

How horrible would it be for our kid if the first time a friend tells them they’re weird or ignorant or even a terrible person (because of their Christian beliefs) it comes as a shock or a surprise. Imagine the jolt to their faith if that comes totally out of the blue?! We don’t know whether our children will experience opposition for their faith this year, but we can gift them right expectations of what it looks like to trust and follow Jesus in this world. This won’t necessarily make the reality easy, but when they start to experience that rub against culture they will at least know that it’s to be expected and that Jesus walked in their shoes.

So, how can we prepare them? I think the most significant thing we can do is to be regularly spending time in the Bible with our kids, chewing over what we find and what it might mean for them.

A great cloud of witnesses

Firstly, consider the Lord Jesus. If we read through the Gospels with our kids they will quickly hear of Jesus’ experiences when he shared the good news. How often he faced opposition to his message to the point that people wanted to stone him and eventually did kill him. If we read the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, they will see the opposition faced by the early church believers and apostles as they started to spread the gospel truths. If we read the stories of the prophets in the Old Testament our kids will begin to see how even those who identify as God’s people can often be deeply opposed to what God had to say to them. God's people were often brutal to those who came with his messages for them.

As we read the Bible we can help our kids to see the common experience of believers through the ages. We can also read to them or encourage them to read the stories of missionaries and believers who have faced hardship and suffering for following Jesus. Our children will quickly see that they consistently experienced opposition to the wonderful truths of the gospel message about Jesus. If that was true then, should we expect anything different now? 

But we can be encouraged by the fact that God’s purposes weren’t thwarted by all this opposition. God was still able to do his work through people who were mistreated and even killed for being loud about trusting and following the one true God. Acts is a great place to see this. Despite all the opposition, chapter after chapter, God was growing his church in number and strength. The apostles weren’t hindered by beatings, imprisonment and even seeing their people martyred for speaking the truth boldly.

Is it worth it?

All this might lead to the question: Is it worth it? Why trust and follow Jesus if it’s going to lead to hardship and conflict with the people around me? I am sure there are many words that could be said in response to this big question. But there are two helpful starting points for our kids. Firstly, when we come to faith there is a great reversal in what we treasure. When we trust and follow Jesus, we no longer treasure the same stuff the world does—like popularity, comfort, material stuff. Now we treasure Jesus and knowing him, living for him and making him known. The goal of not fitting in or not being cool shouldn’t be our priority any longer. And second, the Bible gives us lots of great encouragement about how this life and its troubles are brief and momentary compared to the wonder of eternity with Christ that we will enjoy. It reminds us to hold on to the wonderful eternity awaiting us even if this brief life is a slog.

Our kids might have another follow-up question: What if I’m not experiencing opposition? What if I fit very neatly into the context I’m in and face no opposition for trusting and following the Lord Jesus? This is a good moment for us to encourage our kids to stop and self-reflect and ask themselves the hard questions. It might be possible that we are legitimately living for Jesus and we just aren’t experiencing any opposition at this moment in our lives. But is it also possible that we have taken our foot off the accelerator and we are just coasting along? Flying under the radar? Not actually living as aliens and strangers in this world? The easy and comfortable thing is to keep quiet when conversations come up that might require us to say something as a Christian that others disagree with or don’t like. Or maybe our kids are playing it safe and not even letting people know that they are believers. These tough questions are important for them (and us) to be regularly coming back to.

We can equip our kids to navigate life and continue on as believers by first being truthful about the cost of discipleship. If they are going to follow Jesus, then they are going to experience opposition. The truth is, life probably won’t be all that comfortable and they may not fit in with the crowd. We can also encourage them to be people who reflect on their faith and ask themselves these big questions as they walk with Jesus. And we pray that by God’s grace they might hold onto Jesus (as he holds on to them) through the opposition they will face.
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Edwina Scott is married to Adam and is a stay-at-home mum to four children. She attends Naremburn–Cammeray Anglican, where her husband also works.

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