Biblical Parenting in a Woke World: How to Raise Kids Who Stand Firm

Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." When Lisa and I put this message together, it did not come easy, because we carry a heavy burden here: for parents, this is close to life and death. There's a wolf stalking our families, and its name is wokeism. The question is whether we're awake to it.

Some parents are fully engaged and aware. Others are sleepwalking, moving through the motions but not really seeing the danger. If that's you, this is a wake-up call, offered with love. Here's how to fight the wolf and raise kids who stand firm.

Know Your Role and Your Goal

Everything starts here. Parenting isn't for cowards, and it's more than just having reproduced. God invented the family, so the definition of parenting should come from His Word, not the culture. Here's the one Lisa and I use: parenting is teaching and training your kids to leave and to love the Lord with all their hearts.

That definition rests on four passages: Deuteronomy 6 (teaching), Proverbs 22 (training), Genesis 2 (leaving), and Matthew 22 (loving the Lord with all your heart). Notice what's not in there: being your kid's friend, buddy, or homey. You can be friendly, but your role is to be a parent. You're the number one source. Like a shepherd carrying a staff for both direction and discipline, you're shepherding little lambs, and that job never really stops.

Don't Let Go of Their Hand Near the Wolf Den

Lisa loves taking our grandkids to the zoo, and when she does, she watches them like a hawk. Why? Because the worst-case scenario is one of them slipping her grip and wandering into a habitat. Those enclosures are fine to look at from the right side of the glass. They are not built for a child to live in.

That's a picture of where a lot of us are as parents. We've drifted off to sleep about the culture, loosened our grip, and let our kids wander dangerously close to the wolf's den. No thinking parent would set up a picnic at the edge of an actual wolf enclosure. But that's effectively what happens when we stop paying attention to what's forming our children.

Why Deuteronomy 6 Is a Parenting Blueprint for Today

You might wonder what a book written to people living in tents has to do with a world of smartphones. Everything, actually. In the chapters before Deuteronomy 6, the Israelites had been looking to the right and to the left, taking their eyes off God, drifting into idolatry and paganism. That's exactly what wokeism is: a kind of neo-paganism that takes your focus off God and puts it somewhere else. Moses' instruction was life and death then, and it still is.

It begins with the parents: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5). Then it moves to the kids: "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:7). That's essentially 24/7. Which means the first job isn't managing your kids; it's you walking the walk and talking the talk yourself. Parents are modeling every hour of every day, whether we mean to or not.

Run Every Conversation Through a Biblical Worldview

The second way to fight the wolf is to center your conversations around a biblical worldview. Your kids will bring home all kinds of thoughts, from knee-high to tree-high, about a teacher, a class, a friend who just announced something at school. If those thoughts aren't flowing at home, make them flow. Ask. Listen. Ask the right questions and you'll get real answers. Then help your child run each thought through a simple filter with four parts.

Thoughts. Culture says your thoughts become your identity. So when your child repeats an idea they picked up at school, don't panic and don't shut it down. Get it on the table so you can talk it through together.

Identity. Their identity in Christ outshines anything the wolf can throw at them. Wokeism wants to reduce a person to race, body parts, and how those parts are used. The gospel says they're made in the image of God. Keep pointing them back to who they actually are.

Emotions. Wokeism puts emotion over truth: "the way I feel is the truth." Here's how Lisa frames the parenting move. First, validate the emotion; let your child know their feelings matter to you and don't shut them down. Then gently separate the emotion from the truth so they don't camp out in the feeling. Then educate, showing them what God's Word actually says.

Behavior. Thoughts and feelings work their way out into how we live. We're in a culture where sin is openly celebrated, which means we have to be more diligent, not less, about helping our kids connect their choices back to Scripture.

Stand on Conviction Without Withdrawing Love

Here's the hard, tender part. Sometimes a child goes off the ranch. When that happens, you don't change your convictions, and you don't withdraw your love either. You love them, you accept them, and that doesn't require applauding every choice, any more than we applaud all of our own.

Lisa tells about a mom who wrote to her after Lisa posted something about the culture. The mom's daughter had come out and chosen a path Lisa's family wouldn't have chosen, and the mom felt that standing on conviction was unloving. Lisa understood that ache, because she had walked through a season with a child's addiction, a road she'd never have chosen for her daughter, and she loved her daughter through it without pretending it was God's best. That's the posture: hold the conviction, keep the love, and pray that over time your child sees that God's way was the loving way all along.

Engage the Culture Instead of Outsourcing It

Shepherding also means getting involved. Know what your kids are learning. Understand the curriculum, talk to the teachers, and don't be tricked into thinking you don't have the right to be there. If you put a fortune in a bank and the bank told you that you couldn't come see it, you'd move your money. Your children are far more valuable than any bank account, so of course you get to know what fills their eight hours at school.

That plays out in real decisions. A private school isn't automatically a Christian one, so look closely. If homeschooling is your path, explore it honestly. Even the question of whether both parents must work is worth praying through, not out of guilt, but because sometimes protecting a child from the wolf's habitat means hard choices. Engagement reaches to the local level too: the school board and city council often shape what your child is taught more than anything national does.

Learn From the Sheep

Scripture compares us to sheep, and sheep are better equipped than they look. They have sharp eyesight, excellent hearing, and a strong sense of smell, and they can detect a wolf more than a thousand yards off. When the threat gets close, their instinct is to gather together.

That's a beautiful picture of a family and a church living with discernment: seeing the world the way God wants us to see it, hearing His Word and His Spirit, smelling out a wolf in sheep's clothing, and gathering together rather than scattering. The Good Shepherd leads. Our job is to follow Him closely and keep our little flock close as we go.

A Prayer for Parents

No parent can do this alone. If you're a mom or dad, whether single-parenting, blending a family, or raising a houseful, here's a prayer to pray: Father, thank you for these children you've entrusted to us. Give us endurance and discernment. Grow a biblical worldview in our home. Help us shepherd our kids toward you and toward greatness, which is simply living in the center of your will. In Jesus' name, amen.

And if you've never made Jesus the center of your own life, that's where all of this begins. You can settle it right now by admitting you're a sinner, turning from that sin, and asking Him to come in and take His place at the center. The most important thing you can give your kids is a parent who's awake.