Shepherd, a little boy I know, who was not quite two-years old at the time, was sitting in a shopping cart as his mother was shopping. This little boy’s mother had picked up an item that he was anxious to eat, and while still at the checkout stand, Shepherd wanted to unwrap this item and eat.  However, his mother said he couldn’t do that because they had to they had to “pay first.”  Immediately, this little boy bowed his head and began praying.  He had mis-heard his mother and thought she said he had to “pray” first, rather than “pay” first.

In contrast, consider another little boy I once met. I would guess he was about five-years old.  I was handing out invitations to a gospel meeting outside of a K-Mart in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. This little boy’s mother took the flyer I handed her, very politely thanked me for it, and then turned to her son and said, “Look what the nice man gave us. It’s an invitation to study the Bible.”  In innocence, the little boy looked back at his mother and said, “What is a Bible?”

Here we have two little boys, one taught at a very young age to pray and the other doesn’t even know what a Bible is. These two accounts remind me that parents can either be a blessing or a stumbling block to the salvation of their children. May God help us to keep focused and to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

by Steve Higginbotham