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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. Tim Kimmel 
 
 
Question: 
 
We have 3 children but are afraid of raising them in today's culture. 
We want to move to the country and do home-schooling but our 
parents think we're overreacting. Are we? 
 
Answer: 
 
I see something I think is very toxic in a lot of parents. It’s what I call 
“fear-based parenting.” 
 
Because, you see, fear-based parenting causes us to make our 
decisions and our strategy for raising our kids based on what 
intimidates us. 
 
Now, think about this. Let’s say there is a football team, and they are 
going to play the opposing team, and they are gathered and huddled 
up around their coach, and somebody’s talking with them, and the 
coach says, “Now, boy, that team over there, they’re pretty big, and 
they are a lot bigger than us. I think they are a lot faster than us. 
They have a better win-loss record. They scare the heck out of us,” 
and all the team members are saying, “Boy, I’m really scared, too, but 
let’s go out there and play them.” 
 
What’s going to be the outcome of this game?  
 
I don’t even know why they are bothering to go out. They are going to 
get defeated—because, you see, if you let fears set the stage and set 
the plan, you are usually going to lose. 
 
 
 
Now, just let me speak to the heart here. If you are a person of faith, 
if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and you are a parent, and you are 
scared of what is going on out there, and you say, “I’m scared of 
Hollywood. I’m scared of the internet. I’m scared of the forces of 
darkness. My kids are so vulnerable,” those are all maybe legitimate 
things, but if you are letting them get the best of you, then you 
already are communicating to your kids that our God is too small, He 
cannot get us through this thing, and we’re going to have to take 
matters into our own hands. 
 
Automatically, that bankrupts your plan. 
 
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you should be the last person 
afraid of anything. See, our God is mighty. He’s huge. He had the first 
word. He’s the Alpha. He’s going to have the last word. He’s the 
Omega. He is sitting on His throne. He is not the least bit panicked. 
But when we are, we are saying to our kids, “He can’t handle this.” 
 
May I suggest to you that before you go into the country and change 
the education configuration of your family, make sure that you do that 
for the right reasons. Don’t let fear set the stage for your family, 
because it will only backfire on you. You need to be confident you have 
a great God. He is going to show you how to raise these kids, no 
matter how bad the world is. 
 
 
 
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