Tag: parenting

Why are these two pictures related for Christmas?

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I LOVE the symbolism of my little nativity. Before JESUS CHRIST was crucified on the cross and the veil that separated all from the Holy of holies was torn on the temple, the Ark of the Covenant alone hosted the presence of God. Jesus became the FINAL blood atonement for our sins, and we are now priests unto God who can BOLDLY approach His throne of Grace and into His most holy presence. Christ alone is the mediator between God and man, no longer do we need a High Priest to go before God for our sins or to be the only one to witness His Glory, Power and Presence.

Why is this such a BIG DEAL? Before the veil was torn the only person who was able to go before the Glory of God & Ark of the Covenant which was behind the thick veil of the temple was the high priest, once a year. He would go into the holy of holies with a rope tied around his ankle that had a bell on it. They did that because if for some reason the priest was not purified himself and if he did anything wrong he could drop dead. The bell was to hear if the priest fell.The Rope was to pull the priest out without risking going into the Holy of Holies and drop dead themselves.

But NOW WE only need to come before Him with pure hearts and the shed blood Jesus. King David said, obedience is better than sacrifice. Our obedience is to God when we live according to His principles and truth. Now the law or Bible when read and taught is written on our hearts through the Holy Spirit. 

Our OBEDIENCE  to His GUIDANCE  leads to His PEACE.

This Revelation hit me today smack between the eyes. Two nights ago I laid awake for hours praying about a situation with my son and crying out to God for wisdom and an answer. Yesterday God revealed a principle that I had been neglecting to walk in and how I related to my son. I asked God’s forgiveness and immediately started to change the way I was relating to my son. This morning when I woke up the peace and part of the answer that I was waiting for finally came. I began to hear God’s voice with the issue I was praying about. He told me today that because of my sacrifice and my obedience to him, He will now do His part. It doesn’t mean the situation is going to iron itself out quickly and be exactly the way I want it. But just the fact that I was able to finally hear His voice and receive His peace in the matter was astounding. All day yesterday I was wrestling with the feeling of not being able to hear clearly, I hate that feeling. It was like it was all cloudy and static between me and God. But in the meantime God was doing something in me that I had no idea was connected to the static and uneasiness.

God rewards our obedience no matter how small we think it might be. HE IS FAITHFUL! Now I learn to trust, listen to his voice and obey the simple instructions. The most comforting thought in the world for parent is to know that God loves our children even more than we do and he cares for their spiritual growth even more than we do.

I hope this blesses and encourages you like it has me. We are on the journey, but we are not alone.

“Inasmuch then as we [believers] have a great High Priest who has [already ascended and] passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith and cling tenaciously to our absolute trust in Him as Savior].
For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.
Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment].
Hebrews 4:14-16

Why it is important to tell your kids your personal testimony

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God is so faithful to give us parents wisdom when we ask. While the enemy tries to bring in fear and doubt, the Spirit of the Lord raises up a standard against him when we pray! I was crying out to God today for wisdom after seeing little attitudes creep up I didnt like. I told my child Nothing in my life matters except that I know their relationship with Jesus will last their whole life. They saw my passion through my tears as I told them that My only concern is teaching them to follow after Him in purity and that their life would be full of the fruit of the spirit and love. None of us know how long we are in this planet and it is my #1 priority above all else that they know how important it is to make Godly decisions in all they do.
I decided to use my TESTIMONY, which is the spirit of prophecy, to let my child know I wasn’t always a perfect little girl. Without going into detail I was able to share how from 4-13 I lead a double life hiding sin and giving into temptation. I shared my struggles and the condemnation I would feel after repenting but going back to it. I shared how I walked with shame all those years and hid it not sharing with my parents. That it wasn’t till I was much older that I confessed to my youth pastor and my parents and was lead through steps of forgiveness. (In reality I wasn’t totally free till I went through a “SOZO” which some amazing trained counselor/prayer team took me through many layers of Jesus coming and revealing himself to me in my times of sin, where he was and how he loved me all the way through. I recommend it to anyone!) I told them they can always know we are here to talk to and they dont have to feel ashamed, especially now since they know I messed up also. Its time for us to be real with our kids, allowing them to have a safe place if they mess up. A place of healing and restoration to get on the right track. Jesus never turns His back on us, neither should we!
Our kids should always feel safe talking with us and if they dont we get to keep on gently tenderizing the ground in trust, wisdom, discernment and HAVING A HEART CONNECTION WITH OUR KIDS. If we feel the heart connection is widening it is time to STOP EVERYTHING AND GIVE THEM ALL OUR ATTENTION TILL THE CONNECTION IS TIGHT AGAIN. Lord, help us to know if and when this is happening and how to bridge the gap. Praying for you and your connections! God we want our kids to follow hard after you and never wander. Help us know how to parent wisely, not step into unexplained legalism, oh boy, but know how to explain in a clear and wise way why God isnt pleased with the things of the world and why we need to stay separate from it. Being set apart, as we learned on Sunday, holy and consecrated to God. That living a pure and holy, Godly life is NOT a bore! That living righteously brings FREEDOM, JOY and PEACE NOT FOUND ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. We are raising kids who are ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven, they will transform this world in ways we could only dream of. The same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead LIVES IN THEM!! There is NO JR. HOLY SPIRIT. They are not going to have to wait till they are their parents age to experience all that God has for them it begins NOW!! HA, YES JESUS! I declare it, I declare it over my kids and all those who are reading this, their kids and grandkids! AMEN
  

The New Porn Poisen For Kids

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Innocence is lost quicker and easier than every parent understands. It is so grieving when you find out a devise in your house has been feeding an addiction you didnt know about or thought you already discussed and had security measures in place to prevent. But when the security measures stop working and you stop monitoring the devise it opens a world of sin and temptations too easy to access to resist, especially if we haven’t taken our kids through the preventions found in the links below. 

I am in shock how many kids now days have their own devise. I allowed my kids to have a devise at night to which I trusted they were only going onto the Adventures in Odyssey app to listen to shows. I made a mistake and allowed them to keep it in their rooms at night or during the day when they are sick. That has ALL changed! We have had many talks over the years about purity and staying away from porn and thought our internet security was doing the job of keeping the bad stuff out and restricting all YouTube and internet searching access. But it didnt work, something got disconnected and I didnt follow through in taking time to monitor the content on the devise.
If your kid has an devise that can access internet through their games and especially YouTube and if they are in a room where you are not able to view the screen they have access to more debauchery than you would even think to search for. Even innocent games like Angry Birds have advertisements that pop up with pornographic nude images taking kids to YouTube page with game reviews and ads that lead to darker and more evil porn traps. I’m not making it up, I saw it with my own eyes! Then the videos below get worse and worse, like a game review (which are VERY popular for kids to watch) for a game titled “How to lose your virginity.” All in cartoon form of course full of naked people and more f-bombs than you can count.

Cartoon Porn is the Devil’s candy to entise young kids. Private electonic devises are the free transportation to the candy store of Games and YouTube

 Here is a new article talking about the dangers of the new porn candy for kids

http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/exposing-the-new-wave-of-extreme-hentai-animated-porn/

If you have never heard about it, then your kids dont tell you. And that is not a good place to be in. Secrecy is how the enemy draws kids to himself and takes them to deeper levels. Jesus said He is the Light of the World and in Him there is no darkness. When the darkness is exposed to light of Christ it can be dealt with. 

We need to prevent our kids from going there and if it is too late than take them through a time of repentance, healing and restoration. Find a pastor or counselor to take your child through to make sure their spirit gets cleansed and free. It is not just a clinical issue it is a spiritual issue. Yes, kids go through the same spiritual sexual battles as adults do, starting younger than we ever would want to admit. We are not alone, there are resources out there to help. The first step is acknowledging there needs to be change either in our kids access to devises, the security monitoring program we use and most of all talking to our kids and educating them. 

It is one thing to trust our kids to make the right decisions, it is another thing to make them think we are never going to do our job as a parent and check up on them and help them continue to live a life of purity. Boys or girls it doesnt matter. The attitudes that kids pick up on in what they watch and listen to is just as impacting. If you are starting to see a change in your child’s attitude and behavior, being more rebellious and or reclusive I would recommend taking the steps to dig into their electronic devises and talk about what could be happening. I wont even get into minors having their own Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat accounts right now but I will later. That is allowing your kids to play with a poison that you have no idea the harmful consequences.

I am not legalistic and am realistic! Porn creeps into a child’s life easier and quicker than ever before because of us parents allowing them to have electronic devises unmonitored. It isn’t worth it, it just isn’t worth it to have the potential sinful consequences and healing that will need to take place because of it. I hope the below articles and books help you out as it will myself. We all need help with this and I cant wait to learn of more tools.

Praise The Lord – here is a powerful Cleaning Prayer for Sexual Sins. Thank God for the good part of the Internet , parents need every to we can get, and adults also! https://emergeing.wordpress.com/prayer-for-overcoming-sexual-stronghold/#comment-503

Online Porn Monsters http://www.covenanteyes.com/2013/05/08/online-porn-monsters/

AWESOME FREE STEP BY STEP BOOK – How to start a conversation with your kids about porn and lay a foundation for walking in purity. http://www.covenanteyes.com/when-your-child-is-looking-at-porn/?utm_campaign=when-your-child-is-looking-at-porn&utm_content=bottom_blog_post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=blog_post

Practical Tools to Protect Young Minds http://protectyoungminds.org/2016/03/24/protect-young-minds-practical-tools/

Strengthening our sons to avoid porn while they are still too young to know what it is http://www.jessicalynette.com/family-2/strengthening-our-sons-to-avoid-porn-while-they-are-still-too-young-to-know-what-it-is/

Kids are smarter than most adults when it comes to electonics. They know how to hide apps!

http://abc7.com/technology/kids-are-hiding-content-on-smartphones-with-secret-apps/1096088/

Excellent Book on Good Picture Bad picture- “How to talk to your child who is looking at porn”-http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/sitb/B00R9NROCS/ref=sib_dp_aw_kd_udp

Covenent Eyes is an excellent website of helpful material and resources for parents and individuals on how to keep  free from the addiction of Porn. Please check it out and most importantly follow through with your kids, I know we need to do it also!

PRAY Until Something Happens – 2016

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PRAY Until Something Happens – 2016Today I pray for our families. I pray that the fathers will live a life of purity and accountability with God. That they would be examples to our children and teach them how a young man should cleanse his way. That husbands would love their wives and uplift them. I pray for mothers that we would parent our kids with grace and love. That every word that comes out of our mouth would be in tone and content how the Lord would want us to speak. That as wives we would learn to honor and respect our husbands in word and deed.

Let our children experience the tangible presence of God so intensely that their destiny will be thrust into place. Let them walk in purity and holiness with a passion for You. Thank you that there is NO Jr. Holy Spirit. And greater things will be released through them this year. Let us and our children lay hands on the sick and see them healed, that the blind will see and the deaf will hear, the dead will be raised. No disease is impossible for Jesus to heal!!! HIS BLOOD PAID FOR EVERYTHING.

Most importantly that God would be the center of our homes that we would to walk and talk with Him throughout the day and allow His voice to direct our steps. That we would serve each other and the body of Christ with a willing heart. So the world will see Jesus in us THE HOPE OF GLORY and come to His loving arms. Father God come and move in our country. We lift you up and magnify your Holy Name. The name that is above all names. Come and stir your church to walk, talk and be your hands and feet to the world. Let the trembling that is felt in the spirit break forth demonstrations of your glory in a powerful way. Let health and wholeness which is our spiritual birthright be released over us that we might walk in your power and might. Jesus you have already won every battle! You are our captain and we stand at attention in your army.

Use us Lord, let us be a light in this word. You said if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. Let us see this year every prodigal return, every hardened heart softened and salvation and restoration come to our loved ones. Thank you Father that greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world. We are MORE than Conquerors because of the blood of Jesus. And NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST US SHALL PROSPER!! HALLELUJAH AND AMEN!!

 

Help God!!

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I feel as though I am watching my son go through boot camp and I cant do anything about it. I guess that is just a peek into God’s heart when He watches us go through the hard things in life and knows he cant just take it all away. He knows they are for our own good. All He can do at times is remind us that he is   always there for us, show unconditional love, give us strength and peace. That is what this mama needs to do, but I found myself needing to ask God to cleans my heart so only a good attitude is shown through my words. I needed to get my heart right and have God’s perspective. If my heart as a parent isn’t right, than how am I going to show my son how he should respond correctly to situations he doesn’t like. Selah! God please give us GRACE, Understanding, Patience and Wisdom.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God,and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 

Psalm 51:9-12


 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 

Proverbs 4:23

  

How to teach our kids to make wise godly decisions 

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HOW TO TEACH OUR KIDS TO MAKE WISE GODLY DECISIONS. This verse arrested me this morning. I have been seeking God about something for one of my kids and God told me to turn to Hosea 10. Nothing hit me until I got to Verse 12 then it was like the Fourth of July went off in my spirit- there is more to the story that I will continue very soon.
What I can say now, is that I am so thankful we have taught our kids how to hear the voice of God. It is in times like this where God is directing my 12 year old’s path and even talked to my son before he talked to us his parents. Our conversation about this totally took us by surprise. We are teaching our son that having the feeling or a sense is not the only way we go about making decisions. When we feel like God is talking to us there are many confirmations we need to get before we make major decisions in our life. Even though he had a couple vivid dreams about this situation and really wanted to do it, we told him we need to dig in a little deeper to God’s heart and get confirmation in other ways. 🚦

1. We asked him if he had prayed about it. Yes, sincerely🙏🏻

2. Did he ask for advise from parents and pastors? 👍🏻Yes from us and he went on his own to talk to his pastor yesterday, which was easy because it is his (Papa) Grandpa Hjertstedt. The cool part was that we didn’t even tell him to do this, he did it on his own 😍

3. What confirmation has he seen in the Bible? 🔦 he hasn’t come to this part himself but the verse below did it for me. Reading it and studying its meaning gave me confidence and peace. Now I will ask him to see what God says to him from the Bible.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word spoken by Christ the Messiah have its home in your hearts and minds and dwell in you in all its richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom in spiritual things, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with His grace in your hearts. – Amplified

4. Is there an open door for the desired decision to happen? 🚪Need to knock and find out.

5. Provision? Is the financial part working out?💸 “If it is God’s WILL it is God’s BILL .” says my dad, Joel Hjertstedt

6. Do you have peace? Do your parents and pastors have peace? ✌Yes

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace (soul harmony) which comes from Christ rule (act as umpire) continually in your hearts deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state to which as members of Christ’s one body you were also called to live. And be thankful appreciative, giving praise to God always.   -Amplified

Unfortunately, I know many adults who have never learned this process of making a wise godly decision. It breaks my heart and I hope this blesses you to see how we can go about making a decision and know we have followed God’s heart and lead down his path.

Here is a link to Joyce Meyers article about making good decisions. Definitely a confirmation.

https://www.joycemeyer.org/articles/ea.aspx?article=following_peace_to_make_the_right_decisions

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves according to righteousness uprightness and right standing with God; reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you. (Amplified version)


3 Ways to Protect your Child’s electronic innocence

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5/29/15: UPDATED BELOW: (warning graphic) 3 ways to check how your innocent kids may be affected by unintentional trash on their electronics. Parents, if you have minor children in your house who have access to a iPhone, iPod, iPad or other brand devices, You need to read this!  Have you done a check recently on what they have been engaging with? I would severely encourage you to set boundaries with your kids and have them realize their electronics are a privilege not a right and you have access anytime to do a check. And do it weekly if needed. With our kids they are required to tell us what the password is and give us access it anytime. When they try to swipe things up before they hand it over it puts me on edge. For those of you who need help in a technological way of how to look at their history here are three  ways to do it

Go to:

Settings -General- Usage – Battery Usage (this will show you which apps or things they have had open in the last 24 hours or more) 

The most important one is to check what they have been watching on the Internet. This can be done two ways: first go to Safari. 

On Safari – click on the book in the toolbar below- then look at history

The next most important and most revealing is to go on to that YouTube app – clicked on the dashed lines in the top left-hand corner and select history. Many apps from games nowadays will ask kids if they want free coin by viewing a video. But the sinful crap that comes before their eyes and ears is something you will never be able to take away. I recommend removing any game that requires young kids to watch videos for free coins. The temptation is so great because any kid wants free coins. But what comes through the speakers would absolutely make you throw up like it did with me tonight. Even though my son said he never watches the videos he turns them over when they begin to play and does not listen to your phones, the level of filth I saw was beyond sick. I need to pray a cleansing prayer over myself from just what I saw (Pig in a Strip Club) need I say more!

Parents this is not legalistic and it is not taking away your kids choices, it is been a good parent. A parent that loves your kids. Parent who’s teaching them to make good choices. But sometimes kids need a revelation on what those choices are. God tells us to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older he will not depart. (Proverbs 22:6) 

  Training doesn’t mean tell them one time and expect they will do it right every time. It is up to us to show them what a godly standard is.

Its when you see secretive behavior when you begin questioning kids that you know there is something there that is pricking their conscience.  We cant give up asking questions and asking the Holy Spirit to bring to light what is hidden. If not there is a path of destruction drawing them in. We need to pray that God gives parents and guardians wisdom. On how to train our kids hearts. The temptation of this world is absolutely horrible and going to get worse. God have mercy on the parents of the last generation.

Here is a link to some of the top apps that block porn.
http://appcrawlr.com/ios-apps/best-apps-block-porn

There are two other amazing computer protection and accountability websites:

Covenant Eyes: http://www.covenanteyes.com

Net Nanny: http://www.netnanny.com

This Mobicip site is amazing. I just paid for the premium subscription and it is worth every penny. I just installed it on my kids devices. You can customize everything specifically and what is restricted as well as customize each of the 5 devices and their security level. Tim and I are getting set up on it now. This is the first program I have found that uses its own browser to help block restricted sites. I am so thankful God led me to this.

http://www.mobicip.com/

 Article from Time Magazine on Christians and Pornography (Thank you to my friend Shara for sending this to me)
UPDATED 5/29/15

 I would never post a picture like this except my son was just playing an Angry birds Transformer edition on my phone and clicked on the option to watch a video to get extra game rewards (which I have to sternly remind him he is not aslllowed to do) While he said he flipped the phone over while it was playing, my phone rang and this was what was on my screen when I hung up!!!!   

I realize now I need to have as strict rules on my phone that I have set up for my kids. The video played inside the game app so I dont know if it would have been blocked anyways. I am one fired up mama!! YOUR KIDS COULD BE SEEING THIS EVERY DAY AND YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW!!! We have to be VIGILANT!!

Please check out this link for 10 steps to be free of porn addiction and masterbation 

http://xxxchurch.com/men/10-steps-go-year-free-porn-masturbation.html

You were not born with a cape!

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Lets just say, it was a very bad morning. Which started last night when my daughter finally let me wiggle her tooth that needed to come out because she has another one behind it coming in. Unfortunately we didn’t stop till 9:45 PM which was way past their bedtime. (Husband not happy) The tooth is still in there. That affected everybody else at night and this morning as they were very tired. My oldest (12yrs) didn’t have clothes that were clean because he did not follow directions and put them in the washing machine over the weekend, dispite 3 reminders. Then he broke his brother’s plastic gun by sitting on it. Which resulted in a very mad brother.

 All in all, everybody got to school on time and I was very happy to know that I am not superwoman. Despite my day starting off the way it did I will not live in a state of frustration or depression.  God said, 

  

I am so thankful that I can rely on his grace and strength every day. Because if I had to go on my own, it would’ve stopped about 12 years ago.

NEVER FORGET- GOD DID NOT CREATE YOU WITH A CAPE! So stop living under the expectations of being superwoman.

  

I realized today that I need to make sure I am DAILY declaring the promises of God over myself, my children, my family and friends, my church, my city and my nation.

I just purchased the book “65 Promises from God for your child” by Mike Shreve. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1616389605/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1432068946&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=65+promises+from+god+for+your+child&dpPl=1&dpID=510LChhk6yL&ref=plSrch)

  

 I am literally trembling with excitement just reading the first few pages. It is time to start to DAILY declare the promises of God over my children. As I declare it will change my own attitude and shift my spirit to be focused on my kids are the eyes of Christ.

Here is the article I found out about his book

http://www.charismamag.com/life/relationships/16417-learn-to-claim-god-s-promises-for-your-children

The Reason I Live and Breathe

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Lately there has been a heightened level of talk about the coming back of Jesus. Especially if you listen to the teachings on what is happening in the signs in the heavens, and the blood moons.

I know HE is coming back and I also know that no man or woman knows the day or the hour. I have no doubt, however, that the season is getting closer. People are talking about economic collapse, World War III, especially with all the intensity that is happening in the Middle East. I know that I will be praying on March 3, as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the United States Congress on what is happening in Iran and how it is affecting Israel. Christians in America need to stand in the gap for our nation on that day, that the hearts of our leaders would turn towards God and also towards Israel. The nation who supports and blesses Israel will be blessed.

With thoughts of the return of Jesus, my first instinct is to make sure I am living a life of purity and righteousness before God, that is my personal responsibility. I want to live this life in honor and respect with my husband, walking hand in hand with him in peace as we “press in to the High calling in Christ Jesus”. Next it is my responsibility to train and teach my children to walk closely with God, not just head knowledge but heart knowledge that causes them to have a personal relationship with their Savior. I want to live a life that is an example of Jesus to others, my neighbors, my friends and people I meet.

The world is hungry for what Jesus has, many do not know what that hunger is or where to find it. This is our chance to give them a piece of the puzzle that they have been missing their whole life. Why would I hold back their completion?

My mandate, in the season, is to do all that I can to equip families in our church and wherever around the world God sends my family and I. To give them the tools they need to build strong relationships with their spouse and raise a mighty women and men of God.
If couples do not know how to handle conflicts in their relationship before the tribulation, how in the world are they going to withstand when things get really tough.

Think about families in the Middle East who are having their love ones slaughtered by ISIS, I bet they are not fighting over who left the milk out and who spent the last of the grocery money. This is where it gets real people. We need to know how to communicate with each other, how to have self-control in our thoughts and actions. How to make good decisions. How to honor our spouse and leaders even when we don’t agree 100% percent. Honor is not about agreement it is about respecting a person because of who they are as a son and daughter of God. This list could go on and on which shows the necessity of my mandate.

Our children need us to hold it together and thrive because they are going to carry the torch in their generation. I want them to be prepared to be the army of God who will stand righteous and victorious.
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