A refuge for our kids.

He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge. Proverbs 14:26

What kind of environment are you building for your children?

The kind of environment your children grow up in is very much dependent on the choices you make in life. It starts with you. We take our families for granted – it’s natural that we do. Each family is a miniature sociological experiment, with its own set of unwritten rules, secrets, and nuanced behavioral patterns. We take our mom and dad for granted; like this must be what it’s like for everyone. Your dad may have been narcissistic, but you just assumed that all fathers were like him. (Psychology Today, March 13, 2013). We focus so much on our children to only neglect to build the most important part of their lives – the parents.

Determine to build a fortress. A fortress has a connotation of a wider space, which means we are to set up an environment where we do not fear when our children do roam. Free within an environment. Good education, social life, etc.

Determine to secure the fortress. You work through every detail of the fortress to make sure that it is supposed to do what it is supposed to do. "The research is really strong — if there is an effective father or father figure present in the child's life, there's less chance of substance abuse, suicide, self-harm, violence and crime," he said.

Fear the Lord. Proverbs 14:26 gives another answer: "In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence." This is very strange. It says that the solution to fear is fear. The solution to timidity is fear. The solution to uncertainty is fear. The solution to doubt is fear. Illustration: Fighting fever with fever. Addictions – pornography or drugs or other habits, sex outside of marriage, choosing of partners etc. No fear of God. How can this be? Part of the answer is that the "fear of the Lord" means fearing to dishonour the Lord. Which means fearing to distrust the Lord. Which means fearing to fear anything that the Lord has promised to help you overcome. In other words the fear of the Lord is the great fear destroyer.