“Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge” (Proverbs 14:26 NIV).
I am excited to share that I have co-written a book with my dad (David Limbaugh) titled, “The Resurrected Jesus,” which examines the Apostle Paul’s prison and pastoral epistles. Working on this project with my father is the culmination of a dream and has brought home to me the immense benefits of being raised by loving parents in a Christian family. Let me explain.
Two of the most life-shaping questions a person must wrestle with are 1. Does God exist? And 2. If so, is He good?
By God’s grace, for me, there has never been a doubt in my mind on the first question, thanks to my Christian parents’ mentorship and example. My mom was the prayer warrior of our family, teaching me and my siblings how to pray, and my dad was what I’d call the “divine truth warrior.” Even before I had reached junior high, dad was explaining deep theological concepts about the validity of the Bible, why it was so important to understand that Jesus was the only way to salvation, and providing answers for many arguments naysayers have against the faith.
The summer before I left for college, my dad told me he wanted to fully prepare me for the attacks against Christianity I would undoubtedly hear from professors and peers. I am the oldest child and he had heard (and read) horror stories about secular universities stripping students of their faith. He was convinced that students’ vulnerability was often due to their weak theological and biblical foundation. As such, he was determined to introduce me to Christian apologetics.
Every week that summer he took me out to a special lunch where we would discuss the core principles of Christianity, the arguments many make to discredit the validity of the Bible, and the counterarguments in response to those. Sure enough, the first semester of my freshman year I took a class on the Bible, hardly suspecting that anti-Christian indoctrination would be introduced. Sadly, the entire premise of the class was to critique the Bible as a piece of “literature”, and the professor gleefully highlighted the Bible’s alleged discrepancies. Now I understood why dad was so concerned and why he went to such lengths to prepare me. I was so grateful for his summer tutelage and felt empowered rather than discouraged as I took the course, because God–through my dad–had prepared me for this very trial. (Though I didn’t realize it at the time, dad’s uncompromising stance on the sacredness and divine nature of Scripture would prepare me to understand the Apostle Paul’s fierce opposition of heresies inside the early church that threatened its very existence and the life-saving power of the Gospel – a major theme will emphasize in our book.)
Years later, I was sharing this story with a beloved older colleague who also happens to know my dad well. He said to me, “Christen, you are so blessed to have a deep relationship with God at a young age. I have no doubt that a major reason you are able to understand God the Father’s abundant love, is that you have a loving and encouraging earthly father. When we’re blessed with godly parents, it makes it easier for us to believe that God is good.” His profound words resonated with me and have stuck with me since.
Like most kids, especially during the teen years, I didn’t always appreciate my parents’ high standards and discipline, but now I see how fortunate I am to have been raised by God-fearing parents whose sacrificial love for me always pulled me back to the narrow path God had for me.
God used my mom’s powerful prayers to protect me and connect me with Christian friends who helped my faith become my own, while my dad’s devotion to the scriptures solidified my belief and understanding of God’s Word. There’s a saying that children learn infinitely more from what their parents do than what they say. I believe this to be true, especially because God lives out His relationship with us – His children through His example. God always speaks love over His children and modeled His love for us by sacrificing the Person He held most precious so that we would not be separated from Him for eternity.
It’s not lost on me that there are countless people who, tragically, either grow up without affection from their parents or without being exposed to learning about God. But God does have a special purpose and plan for every human being He created, and there is opportunity in every situation to call upon His Name and ask for help. He is the perfect parent who will never leave our side, never stop looking over us, and never stop loving or caring for us–whether we love Him, believe in Him, follow Him or not. We all have an immeasurably GOOD heavenly Father.
Christen Limbaugh Bloom is the co-author of The Resurrected Jesus with her father, David Limbaugh. Christen is a contributor to Foxnews.com.
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