“Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24: 15)
Neutral is not an option
Close to my house, there’s a little lake in the foothills of Upstate South Carolina. It is beautiful. In the evening the sun sparks a fiery horizon as the sun melts down between the Blue Ridge mountain peaks.
This little lake provides the drinking water for a community near us called Greer, and on the lake, you can’t have more than a 9 horsepower motor. You can’t swim in the lake either, which Leslie feels is just a tease. If you haven’t guessed, Leslie loves the water.
This little lake is only about 15 minutes from my house, so it’s a great place to run up in the late afternoon after work and fish for a couple of hours. I’ve spent many relaxing evenings on the water there.
The thing is that my little 14’ aluminum boat has an engine on it from the 1980s. Often, this little motor goes out on me. When it does, I’d better have a good paddle because there’s no way I’m floating back to the dock. (This part is not so relaxing!)
Have you ever noticed that?
Usually, the current doesn’t point you in the direction you want to go. There’s also no such thing as sitting still. Boats don’t do that. Even with an anchor, they don’t sit still. They’re always moving!
Our homes are the same.
There’s no such thing as sitting still.
There’s no real neutral.
There’s no such thing as not making a choice.
It’s impossible to just float and not make a decision or commit.
You’ll either go with the current or go against current. There is no neutral.
For your family, you either have a vision and you execute on that vision the best you can, or a vision will be chosen for you.
You’re either going somewhere with intentionality or you float. Floating indicates that you’re not in control and the choices are being made for you. The current of the world carries you away.
To state this as clear and simple as I can, the choice every parent has to make is whether they will have a vision for their family or whether they’ll follow someone else’s vision. There is no such thing as neutral.
Many mistakenly believe that the two options are to make a choice or not to make a choice, and the consequences of not making a choice is to just sit idle. That’s not true.
The choice you have to make is either to follow God or to float. Those who float will ultimately be slammed against the rocks or beached in shallow water. There’s no sitting still. You can follow God or face being marooned.
For your family, there is either directing your sons and daughters toward the Lord or placing them in danger of an eventual shipwreck.
Eventually, floating always ends in a shipwreck.
Don’t misunderstand me. Maybe this shipwreck I am referring to is not deadly. It does not push your child into an irrecoverable tragedy they will not come back from, but there will be hardship.
It is rare for a son or daughter to come out of a home that is not centered on God and slide into a relationship with God without some difficulty bringing them to their knees.
I am not trying to scare you in saying this, but the stakes are high. You have to fire up the motor and stir the boat.
How do you do this? Well, we have talk about this all week in our free Heart School Training.
It starts with commitment—A choice. A choice to bring your children to Christ. Then you allow that commitment to inform every decision you make because you take it on as your mission.
Tomorrow, we are releasing our last video in our Free Training. Have you kept up with them? If so, let us know what you think. If not, here is a link to the first two.
