One of the things my wife and I enjoy about living in the country is that we see various kinds of wildlife on a regular basis. Early this morning, I turned into our lane and saw a coyote in the field in front of our house. As soon as he became aware of my presence, he ran away. Then I noticed a deer that was in the same field. The deer, a full-grown doe, held her ground as the coyote retreated.

A couple of hours later, I noticed a deer loping across that same field. It looked like the deer I had seen earlier. She stopped near the tree line. After a few seconds, her fawn came out of the trees and began to nurse. Only then did I understand the full picture of what had happened. The doe was not only protecting her fawn from a dangerous predator, she was giving her offspring the nourishment it needed to survive.

This is the way we need to defend and nurture young Christians in the church. They need to be protected from predators—the devil himself and false teachers who would try to lead them away from the truth. We also need to feed these young believers—to give them the nourishment of Scripture that they need in order to grow in their faith and become strong enough to begin to protect other Christians who need their help.

Like the mother deer, let us always be feeding and protecting!

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock…”—Acts 20:28.