God Help Us to be Faithful
by Esther Vandiver
Those who have never known the pleasure of a quiet, tranquil home life, free from the rush and feverish drive for more and better possessions, cannot understand the disquiet I feel at embracing the very public confrontation in which we find ourselves engaged. Temptation to withdraw from the fray comes in part from my natural reticence to be in any part of the public forefront and in part from my hesitancy to leave the safety and peaceful life I have lived up to this point. The front line is neither peaceful nor conducive to gaining the world’s praise. It is not popular among academics or even among most church-goers to stand before our present culture and proclaim that God is master over every academic discipline as well as life itself. To affirm God’s sovereignty while choosing not to acknowledge Him, failing to give Him credit, and refusing to ask His guidance over our intelligence is to guarantee that our understanding becomes darkened and our great ideas descend into foolishness and destruction. Standing firm on this conviction would perhaps be less challenging had we been raised this way ourselves. But most of us were raised with a huge chasm stretched between faith and education. They were two separate spheres that seldom, if ever, met.
If you and I continue this trend with our children, it will be to their peril. It is uncomfortable and even dangerous to stand and proclaim that Christian parents have a God-given responsibility to train up their children with Godly instruction. But, to choose to be silent and complacent is like watching someone preparing to extinguish a flame with a pail of gasoline without warning them about the nature of the impending results.
It does not take a majority—it does not require great financial backing—it is not necessary to procure a public relations expert—to get the job done. It takes someone who knows that God can move with many or with a handful to do the impossible. What we do now may not result in a great harvest during our lifetime; what we do now may not cause people to sing our praises; but, what we do now will change a great many tomorrows. This stand is worth the reproach—it is worth the hours of labor—it is worth the retraining of ourselves in areas that should have been taught to us as children. God help us to be faithful
