There used to be a saying that there really aren’t any “delinquent adolescents,” only “delinquent parents.” Children didn’t ask to come into this world; they arrived on our planet at the will of adults, vulnerable and helpless, needing someone to prepare them for life in a tough world.

It’s one thing to father a child; it’s quite another to be a father!

“Training” implies constant, daily direction. Children must have instructions repeated. “In the way he should go” implies that there is a way in which he should not go.

Children, when left to their own devices, will take the path of least resistance. They will be selfish and indulgent, lazy and lawless.

This is not because children are particularly evil, but because they are human. That little boy whose defiance remains regularly uncorrected one day will become a broad shouldered man, violent and prepared to harm his wife, his children, and his neighbors.

That little girl who receives nothing but neglect and apathy from her parents will one day fail to be a mother who nurtures her own children.

Some children grow up; others are brought up, with the gentle but firm hand of parents who care what their children will become. As a parent, are you delinquent, or dependable?

by Stan Mitchell @ www.forthright.net