“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). We don’t endure physical threats as the early Church did, yet countless young people lose their spiritual lives on account of persecution. Your children will be on the “hot seat” because of their beliefs. They’ll encounter people who’ll take pride in teasing them because their goodness condemns the people’s own lack of morals. People will criticize our children for not being “tolerant” of the lifestyle they’ve embraced, and persecution such as this leaves too many of our youth abandoning their faith.

Some parents respond to this persecution by telling their children to “ignore people like that.” They have ears; they can’t ignore things said to them, but they can be taught how to hear persecution and not let it affect their desire to serve God.

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice comes to a fork in the road and asks the Cheshire cat, “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to go to,” said the cat. “I don’t much care where,” replied Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

Each time our children are persecuted, they come to a fork in their road, forcing them to choose a path of destruction or life. Whether they verbally ask or not, they’re looking to you, as Alice did the Cheshire cat, to tell them which way they ought to go. If it matters which direction they take, you have to lead them where you want them to follow.

Be an example for your children (Matthew 5:13-16). It’s not enough to educate them about God’s laws. How many people have departed from the Lord who grew up in the Church and had a complete awareness of God’s will? Logic isn’t the only aspect governing decisions your children make. Emotions are also involved. Emotions cause us to be sensitive to what others think, and concern for what others think is hard for children to dismiss, unless they see that we’re comfortable in our “spiritual skin.”

Your children will have spiritual confidence if they see it in you. When your children look at you, they need to see someone who’s okay with being different rather than someone who is trying to live as much like those in the world as possible (Romans 12:2). When your children look at you, they need to see someone abstaining from every form of evil rather than someone who is comfortable living in a degree of sin for the sake of man’s acceptance (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

Your children will have spiritual confidence if you allow them to see the real you. They need to know you’re a real person. They need to know it isn’t always easy for you to be different in a righteous way. Emphasize that such is, and was, a problem of many, including those recorded in Scripture.  

Read the books of Samuel with them. Talk about King Saul’s willingness to serve God only when he found it to be easy. He valued admiration from man more than from God, and as a result, he caved when pressured not to do things God’s way (1 Samuel 15:24). His poor choices cost him; he was rejected by God. Tell your children about Stephen and his boldness to proclaim the Truth, and how, though it cost him his physical life, he gained eternal life (Acts 7).

The Bible isn’t merely a history book of how people lived long ago but a book of encouragement to help us navigate through life. Share your enthusiasm and passion for God’s Word. Emphasize the reward of Heaven, and how one must be a Christian through and through to inherit it (Matthew 7:21-23).

Let your children know you identify with the temptation to downplay or abandon your convictions when confronted by someone hostile to Christianity. We do our children a disservice if we make them feel as though we’re “super-human” and never struggle spiritually. Boost their spiritual confidence by letting them know they aren’t the only ones who struggle with persecution (1 Peter 5:9).

Your children will remember what people say to them; what you want them to remember more is that they need God’s approval more than man’s (Galatians 1:10). Encourage them with the promise of life to come, worth all the persecution they’ll endure in this lifetime (Revelation 21:4). Be an example of one who not only knows what is required of a Christian, but one who lives as a Christian even when persecuted.