Dads, Stand Between Your Kids and Satan

As men, it is our job to spiritually protect our households. How do we do that and what does it look like?

First and foremost, we must pray for our family. We must pray the Lord’s protection over them.

Next, we must pay attention to the information which makes its way into our families. To paraphrase Giglio, if we are not vigilant Satan will pull a seat up at your table before you know it. Our kids are at school seven hours a day. Your kids spend 35 hours a week there. You NEED to know what is going-on in their school and school system. You need to know what values they are being reinforced. You need to know what values are being undermined. And most importantly, you need to know what information is flowing into them from social media, websites, and such. No matter how uncomfortable, be involved. Make sure they know that God doesn’t use standardized assessments to decide how or when He is going to use them. Satan wants uninvolved parents. Don’t fall into his trap.

Find your family a church home where the Gospel is being preached and the truth is foundational. You simply cannot stay in churches which honor false doctrine. Remember, not all churches are perfect. Satan will likely immediately attack this process if you look for a new church home, especially if your old church is preaching a false Gospel. He will leave you alone if you are in a church which is lukewarm. Your need to be surrounded by wise counsel, and church is part of that counsel.

Teach them right from wrong. Teach them to look to the Bible for guidance, answers, and wisdom. You can’t make them accept God, but you MUST lead them to the foot of the cross. You must be like Andrew bringing Peter to Jesus.

And finally, you must be the foremost Christ-like example in their lives, OR you gotta find people who can be that for them. You won’t be perfect. But you must do your best to show your kids how to act, how to live, and how to stand for Christ. Because if they are going to believe and follow Jesus, they will surely be persecuted, and likely are already. They need to understand why that is happening and how to guard themselves against it. They need to understand the life-and-death importance of spreading the Good News despite suffering.

Above all, we must stand as shields between our families and Satan. Our brethren in Catholic Church pray the Umbrellino Prayer. It says…

Lord Jesus Christ, Sovereign King enthroned in Heaven, in your love and mercy establish a perimeter of protection with Your Most Precious Blood around myself (and N.), our families, loved ones, those we cherish, and our possessions, blocking the empowerment of Satan or any curses or any other demonic enthronement, abominations in Your sight.

I wanted to say one thing on behalf of the Catholic Church. I am a Protestant. However, I fully recognize that the Catholic Church incubated and grew Christianity for over a millennia. I also recognize Martin Luther wanted us to live free of legalism. There is plenty of common ground. Both Protestant and Catholic churches are full of strong witnesses for Christ.

Anyway, I ran across this prayer of protection excerpt. I love the idea of praying for a perimeter of protection around our families. We need to pray for that protection over our families. If we don’t, Satan may well end up sitting at our tables in a blink. Generations are impacted by our actions. Let those actions have heavenly ripples across the lives of our descendants.

If we don’t preach the Gospel to our own families, Satan likely has someone else who will teach a false Gospel to them.