As a parent, you’ve probably spent hours reading books to your younger children. If you choose wisely, most children’s books have great hidden lessons or uplifting messages and usually end with something to warm your heart. Children’s storybooks also very often end with a ‘they lived happily ever after’. That got me thinking – do our children also expect real life to always have a happily every after and if the going gets tough do they have resilience to stand firm through tough seasons?

I think we can all agree that the last two years of the pandemic have been hard for most families. We have all seen the economic impact and cost of the pandemic but what about the invisible impact on our children. As parents, regardless of the ages of our kids, we all share similar concerns about the impacts of the pandemic on the emotional well-being of their children. It seems that during the pandemic children were deprived of so many ‘normal’ things that society considers vital in shaping healthy normal human beings.  Many children and families have faced and still face anxiety, fear, loneliness, frustration and hopelessness.

As Christian parents, we need to ensure that regardless of what is going on in the world God wants us to be flying a banner of hope in our households. The truth is real life doesn’t always end in a happily ever after… well one day in heaven it will but here on earth things can sometimes get tough. The message we need to embed in our kids is that ‘it’s ok if everything is not ok’. As Christians, we have the wonderful peace, grace and strength of God that transcends all understanding that can guard our hearts, guide our steps and give us strength- regardless of what we are facing.

It is important to be real with our children about that being a Christian does not mean life will always be easy. God allows certain hardships and challenging seasons in our lives not so He can see us suffer but rather so that we can be cultivated into something stronger.

The truth is that, YES the last two years have been challenging but we can hold fast and be encouraged that regardless of the present sufferings we face, we know that through perseverance, God can cultivate character and resilience in us and our children!

We have been made right with God because of our faith. So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our faith, Christ has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory.  And we also have joy with our troubles because we know that these troubles produce patience. And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. God gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us. Right with God. Romans 5: 1-5 (ICB)