Where were you?

We now all have this moment. The moment everything changed.

In the middle of prepping food and overseeing schoolwork, I checked my phone. One notification caught my eye and I opened it to see a video of Charlie Kirk being shot. My thoughts swirled and my stomach churned as I stared at my phone. What did I just see? Was that real?

Quickly I learned that he had, indeed, been shot in the neck. The minutes seemed like hours as I waited to learn if he had somehow survived. Over and over I begged the Lord to work a miracle. Restore him. Please Father, please. God chose to take him home. I leaned on the counter with my head in my hands.

We all have this moment, and yet…we are not all one. We all have this moment, but we are worlds apart in the same soil.

Some claim equality and justice, while murdering babies in the womb and confusing what children they have left with ideas about gender. They say we need to come together, but the fruit of their culture shoots up schools and stabs innocent commuters.

Some desire freedom; freedom of speech, freedom to live. Protection of the innocent, from conception till natural death. The ability to have conversation and debate, to disagree and shake hands.

There have been some muddied up waters, but if this week has taught us anything - there is no neutrality. This is good versus evil. The beliefs of the Left lead to death and destruction. It is godless, demonic, wicked. The beliefs of the Right will likewise degrade unless they are anchored in truth.

Dear reader, I beg you to search your soul. You may hate what the Left stands for - good. But do you know Jesus Christ? Has He saved you? Do you know that apart from Him, your sinful self can spiral into justifying wickedness too? Every single one of us is born sinful, there is none who does good on his own (Romans 3:12). Our hearts are prone to unrighteous anger and hatred, bitterness, covetousness - “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15). If we do not have Him, if He has not saved us and made us clean from our sins, we cannot actually be good. The tether to morality is through Jesus Christ, there is no other way. We cannot truly be free unless we have been freed from our sins through Him.

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36

There is righteous anger right now, I feel it too. Justice is a good and right desire. Justice is Godly. But justice can only be Godly if it is done in God’s ways. Friend, if you do not know Him, I beg you to repent. Get right with God. Know His grace and His peace that surpasses all understanding.

Each of us has to determine where we stand. For those of us clinging to Scripture and begging God to make sense of it all -

“Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before my face.”
Psalm 5:8

Psalm after Psalm resonates right now. I found myself asking, why? Why am I so wrecked about this? It sounds callous to say, yet Charlie Kirk isn’t someone I’ve spent time with let alone talked to. I don’t know him. Others have summed it up well: that he embodies what we seek to be. He was a brother in Christ, fighting for freedom of speech in our country, working harder than most to keep civil discourse alive and encourage young people to find truth. The more I learn about him, the more I’m inspired by how he lived his life. Everything was for Jesus. He humbly loved people so well. To have a man who has not gone after anyone, murdered in front of his own family…it is such a vicious attack that there is no going back. Everything has changed.

More details will surface and time will tell what happens next. But mothers, may I attempt to encourage us all? The children we are raising need to know truth. They need to understand how God created them and the world. They need verses in their minds and hearts. They need to know that they are sinners, and Jesus is our Savior. They need to know that boys are boys and girls are girls because that’s how God’s beautiful design works. They need to know that God hates murder, and that it starts in the heart. They need to be taught that the tantrums they throw when they’re little will turn into violent rage later if they don’t know how to control themselves and submit to Scripture. They need to know that people are valuable because God made them, and He desires that none perish. They need to know that not everything in life is fair or equal, that God gives different gifts to His children and we are to rejoice in that. They need to know when to pick a fight and stand on principle, and when to walk away. They need to know so much.

Our jobs are not mediocre, friends. We help shape the future by the raising of our children. Lord willing, you have a strong husband to lean on who will cover you and lead your family well. I pray you do. If you don’t, I pray the Lord strengthens your hands and lifts your head, and may He provide you with such a man.

Draw your children to Scripture and help them understand it. Help them apply it daily - you will grow too. You can search things out alongside them. When they are caught in sin, resist the temptation to be easily frustrated and short with them. Help pull them out, as our Lord does with us. Give them the tools to grow into men and women firmly rooted in Christ.

May we raise children who make our Savior proud. May we seek to glorify Him daily. He is worthy of what we see as sacrifice. Someday, when we see Him, it will be the least we could have done.

“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; Only what's done for Christ will last.”

C.T. Studd