All Lives Matter In The Battle For The Soul – Counter Culture Parenting Part I

“When did it become acceptable to use cold-blooded murder as the battle grounds for politics? Murder is the destruction of life by a deranged and evil person. It does not matter their color, creed, sexual orientation or citizenship. Evil knows none of this. As a society we have become so cold, so blase’ toward evil that we don’t recognize it.”

That was a facebook post I coined a few weeks ago after seeing so many repulsive memes about the horrendous LIVE murder of a reporter and cameraman in VA.

It was written after so many disheartening conversations on my personal facebook page about Planned Parenthood and their grotesque “business” practice of killing pre-born human babies and selling their organs.

It was written after realizing that no matter what PP does, be it murder our pre-born, counsel our children to have premarital sex, or sell body parts of murdered babies, there will be people who are ok with that.  That they just refuse to see the evil that is PP, or maybe they are incapable of seeing evil…it is scary either way.

It was written after all the vile anti-police posts and anti-white posts.

You guys!!  Don’t you see?  All Lives Matter!  Death isn’t political, it’s a tragedy and all humans should be able to agree on this one point!  But we can’t, and that’s absurd.  We’ve strayed so far, become so self-involved, that we can’t see clearly.  and we are raising our kids to be the same … or worse.

What has happened to our society that we can’t recognize evil for what it is?  That our agenda is more important that our humanity?  That even being a Christian has become something to be scandalized and criminalized?  That leaders like, Louis Farrakhan are encouraging the murder of white people, law enforcement officers, in particular and no-one bats an eye?

What is this world coming to?

We are on a downward spiral, closing in on despair as a nation.  Good is evil and evil is good.  If you stand for righteousness you are called a bigot or a racist or a hater and now, subject to being thrown in jail.  If you stand for sin, you are accepting and loving, “Jesus-like”, they tell us.

People are twisting Jesus’ own words and using them for their own agendas.  I’m sorry, but Jesus stood for love and forgiveness, yes, but He did not stand for sin.  Not ever. He surrounded Himself with sinners, not because He wanted to accept them and their sin, but because He loves them and because of this love, He wanted to convert them, to save them.

Never once did He rally for sin.

And, Jesus was not beloved by all, He was persecuted.  Remember that?  Are any of us prepared to be persecuted for our beliefs?  I’m not sure we are because we are losing this battle.  The other side is loud and vocal and its going to take an about-face if we are going to turn the tides.

So, what are we doing as parents to counter the counter-culture?  Are we taking an active role in our kids’ lives?  Or are we relegating their education, both spiritual and intellectual to outside forces?  Are we more attached to our jobs, our phones, social media, and our own aspirations for success than we are our own children?

I’m asking because I believe that part of the blame, shoot, most of the blame for the morally bankrupt society we find ourselves in must be laid at the feet of all of parents.  The if it feels good, do it mentality has done nothing but corrupt our society.

Do you know that I know a mother with two high school girls (Freshman and Sophomore) and both of them are on birth control, because, “you know they are going to do “it” anyway” and she doesn’t want to see them get pregnant.

Shaking my head, my fists, my body in total disbelief.  With that mentality, why not give our kids, alcohol, drugs and play porn 24 hours a day?  With that mentality, why even bother raising your kids yourself?  I mean just put them in a home, right?

Barring that, and assuming you love and want to raise your own children, you gotta ask youself, “What do I value?” and then teach that.  It really is that simple.

Or it was.

Today it would appear that a line has been drawn in the sand and either you are a liberal or you are a conservative and the only thing that each side agrees on is that the two sides can’t agree on anything.  Not a gosh darn thing.  It’s infuriating.

If a conservative says, “suicide parties are a bad idea”,  Liberals will defend the idea with the blood of their children.  Sorry, but I thought suicide in general sucked, as in like, tragic.

If a liberal says “compassion needs to be the driving force when deciding immigration law”, conservatives will scream “bleeding hearts” and call everyone socialists. And here I thought loving people compassionately was a good thing?

It’s an infuriating situation, but not impossible.  We still have a chance to turn things around.  We still have a chance to fulfill E Pluribus Unum.  Out of Many, One.  Instead of dividing ourselves by religion, race, political affiliation, sexual preferences … why not unify on the things we all can agree on?

If you think it’s too late, you are not alone. End of Days warnings are everywhere.  People, people even I know, are creating bunkers filled with food and ammo and bows and arrows …

Not me.  If that day comes in my lifetime, I hope me and my family are the first to go, fighting and starving and being martyred just doesn’t really sound all that exciting.  Of course, if that’s my destiny, so be it, I’m just not going to prepare for those days.

And I’m also just one of those people with irreparable hope.  Hope can either keep you afloat or it can drive you insane. We’ll see upon which side I fall eventually, but I do have hope and trust that we can make this nation one again.

But not with ease.  Not without some persecution, some trouble and some personal trials.  And only by educating and preparing our children for this battle against right and wrong, good and evil.

You see, my fellow parents, your children are depending on us to teach them, they need us to educate them on our values, our core beliefs.  I can tell you for certain, they will not learn these things in public school, so it has to happen at home!

And, you know, there was a time when parents taught their children values and morals and EXPECTED them to adhere to them.

There used to be a day when parents showed their kids how much they loved them by wanting the best for them, and best meant Godly best, not financial, comfort best or popularity best …

Today, I feel that through our actions we are really showing that we don’t care that much, or that we don’t really think our kid’s souls are what is at stake.  And, that may sound dramatic as hell to some of you, but by golly, it’s a reality!

It’s a reality that I go to bed with and wake up in the morning with.  Shoot, Dan and I worry and pray over our children’s lives and decisions ALL freakin day long.  I almost always fall asleep (albeit mid-prayer) re-aligning myself with His word, His plan, His love.

My faith is a little like a life hack.  I don’t know how I would have ever survived half the things this life has thrown at me, let alone the loss our sweet little Lucky, due to miscarriage this past July, without faith.  Faith that our baby is in heaven, faith that God loves me and has a purpose for me, faith that God hears my pleas for Dan, our kids and myself and all of creation.  Life is so incredibly difficult, so so hard.  I can’t imagine getting through it without faith.  And I don’t want to imagine my kids getting through life without it either.

And so, yes, of course, we teach them about our Heavenly Father.  We teach them Catholicism (leave your Catholic hate at the door, if you possess it, and just love us as your brothers and sisters of the world) and morals and values and then we teach them everything else … math, reading, writing, etc.

Being morally righteous is a touchy subject for parents across the globe.  We have to teach our children to be compassionate and loving of all people, regardless.  And on the flip side, we also have to teach them to not be complicit in sin.  It’s tough, I’m not going to lie.  Especially today when the lines are all blurred.

And so, we must teach our kids that they have, we all have, a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:

– by participating directly and voluntarily in them;

– by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;

– by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;

– by protecting evil-doers.

Parenting is a doggone scary enterprise…

Made even scarier because our society is at a crossroads.  At first glance, one might think evil is prevailing, at first glance, one might begin to worry, but anyone with faith knows that God wins the war.

Unfortunately, our children’s future here in the great USA appears to be uncertain.  The morally bankrupt are louder, more organized.

We have to organize, we have to become spokespeople, even martyrs.  We have to educate ourselves on issues we never thought would bear any relation to our lives (like Syria and Climate Change and Abortion and same sex marriage).  And, in turn, we have to educate our children to be warriors for God.

We gotta somehow teach our children that they can’t speak falsely because it’s the easier route, when all we want to do is crawl into a corner and not speak out ourselves.

We all must stand and be martyred in the small things if we truly want to be aligned with God. This is particularly important because if you fail to stand up and be martyred in small things, how on earth will you ever find enough peace in the Holy Spirit to die honorably with God’s name on your lips?  I mean think of the Christian’s being beheaded by ISIS for refusal to convert to Islam?  Do you have that strength now?

In talking about this, my 10 year old asked why they didn’t just lie and say OK we will convert and then not do it.  Damn good question, if you ask me.  My only answer was that would have been to deny God.  We have to revisit this so if you have a better answer, please PLEASE leave it for me in the comments.

And so, this is what I’m talking about, this isn’t petty stuff, this is life, this is death … this is HARD!  As crap.

Even failure to speak up can be a form of denial and it would sure appear that the majority of us just don’t want to deal with the backlash that is sure to come when we stand up or speak out about our true beliefs, especially when you know there will be few brave enough to stand with you.

Even harder when you are a kid.

I know a kid who posted something about healthcare and entitlements and religious freedom.  The posts he received from other adults made me cringe.  A few of his friends, his own age, liked his post, but the adults, they went after him, calling him an idiot, a moron and other unmentionables.

The road indicated by Jesus invites “us to bear witness every day, defending the rights of others; defending our children; mothers and fathers who defend their family; so many sick people who bear witness and suffer for the love of Jesus.” – Pope Francis

And so I defended this boy and, yeah, it wasn’t fun.  But I knew what I was doing …

A few months ago I re-posted on facebook a Supreme Court document re: same sex marriage.  Oh the hate I got, the death threats, the scandal, the threats to call CPS, it was remarkable.  A few people came to defend, but most slinked away because the vile hatred was so much louder and so much more violent than the supporters.

So does that mean we should become vile and violent?  Of course not.  What it means is that we should become louder.  We need to be heard.  Our children need to see us being heard.  And for them, we need to be brave enough to speak out and to come to the rescue of others who do as well so that when it’s their turn, they will be stronger and braver than we ever were.

Finally, we need to teach our children to be spiritual warriors with unwavering bravery.  The future truly relies on them!

Don’t Miss Part 2 … and if you have anything to add, please please PLEASE say so in the comments below!!