Read: Joshua 10:16-28
Joshua is yet again in battle. Five kings have banded together against him and Israel. They feel that together they will be able to defeat God’s armies. Not long into the battle, they discover how wrong they were.
Seeing the destruction of their armies and the strength of God’s people – the kings run. Leaving their people to fend for themselves, they cower inside of a cave in hopes of saving themselves. If you read to the end of the story, you discover their attempts were futile. Joshua finds them, brings them out of the cave, and kills them all.
Leaders – good, Godly leaders – don’t cower in caves while their people fight on the frontlines. “Self-protection” is not their primary focus. Seeing God’s best for the people matters more to them than what it might cost them. The same is true for good, Godly parents. This can’t be about us.
I look at these kings and I think, “What horrible leaders. I would never do anything like that,” and yet…
How often have I not dealt with a situation I needed to simply to avoid conflict?
How often have I “hid” from a conversation that I knew needed to happen for one of my family members – a child, a spouse, a sister – to grow simply because I knew the conversation would be laced with confrontation?
How often have I avoided what would be best for our family so that I could protect myself from doing what might be hard to do?
How long have I fed the “elephant in the room” and tripped over things that I have just kept “shoving under the rug” in an effort to pretend we are okay when we are not?
Parents – good, Godly parents – we must be willing to face these situations head on. We must be willing to have these conversations and do the hard things of parenting, to love in the uncomfortable places and never shy away from the fight. Just like good, Godly leaders, we must remember what and why we are fighting. Our enemy is Satan, not people. We do not fight against flesh and blood, we fight FOR them. Every single day – in the small, seemingly insignificant moments and the big, epic ones – we fight: fight to keep going, fight to stay close, fight to be the family God created us to be…even if it means having the conversations we never wanted to have.
Journal:
Are there situations, conversations, and/or relationships in my life that I have been avoiding in an effort to self-protect?
Are there things I have been hiding from that I need to face head on?
Why do we avoid confrontation as humans?