The Gift of Hope

If you caught someone walking behind your children and telling them, “There’s no hope for you!” you’d trounce that person and send them away. But too often, we are that person. We open the door for social media’s constant comparisons. We worry over news reports of a world falling apart. And as we go, our children go.

Children hear regularly that they are too fragile, their country is imploding, their culture is irredeemable, their planet is in peril. They hear they are not strong enough, smart enough, or good enough to turn this world around. Life seems dark and hopeless.

Before Jesus’s birth, God’s people hadn’t heard from a prophet for some 400 years. David’s royal line had fallen. Their country was now ruled by the pagan Romans. Yet God had left them with a promise in the prophecy of Isaiah.

Those who walked in the dark

have seen a bright light.

And it shines upon everyone

who lives in the land

of darkest shadows.

Isaiah 9:2 (CEV)

The God who knows the future gave them a reason to hope. A son is coming to rule David’s kingdom (Isaiah 9:6–7)! It was a promise they remembered and rehearsed together.

During the first week of Advent, many churches celebrate the lighting of the hope candle on their Advent wreaths. It is a tangible reminder of the hope God offered before Christ’s birth—and of the hope we now have that Jesus will soon return in glory as King. Our hope is fixed beyond the current state of who is running our country, how peaceful the world is or isn’t, or the stability of our lives. Our hope does not lie in our ability to fix things. Our hope is in Christ.

As this Christmas season is upon us, how can we give our children the gift of the hope we have in Christ? How can we light their candles of hope in a dark culture? How can we show them our hope for their future—based not on circumstances, but because the all-knowing and all-loving God has placed them, with their unique abilities, in this time, for this challenge? How can we show them we have hope because God is in control?

Ask the Lord how he would have you answer these questions. It might be the best gift you will ever give them.

PRAY

Lord thank you for the life-sustaining hope you give. Thank you for Jesus. Please help me to show this gift of yours to my children. Amen.

TIME TO TALK

Conversation starter for kids: Provides you with questions and prompts to facilitate a time of applicable discussion with children to lead them towards knowing God and His Word more deeply.

Question(s): What gives you hope? What takes away your hope?

Apply: Consider a fast or adjustment of negative influences in your life that steal hope. Scheduling a day each week to take a break from screens can have positive results. Replace that time with something positive—rest, service, time outside. Remind your kids to do things that fill us with hope—especially praying and reading God’s Word.

KEEP IT GOING

Related passages: These additional verses will help parents expand their Scriptural knowledge and place on the armor of God’s Word to tackle each day.

Matthew 12:17-21

Hebrews 6:18-19a

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This devotional was written by Tonia Gutting for the Hero Squad Program of the American Bible Society. Hero Squad provides complimentary faith-based resources to strengthen and encourage Military families through God’s Word. For more information or to enroll your Military family, check out our website.www.myherosquad.org.