At the end of this lesson is a quote, and it hits the bull’s eye regarding America.  I am now seeing 3 year old children in school.  Parents ready to be rid of them for the day, and are disappointed if school lets out early, or is closed for the holidays, for it upsets their schedules.  These children cry for their parents, but someone else will comfort them.  I have seen many times children come to school ill, and sometimes have to stay with the nurse for the day.  Parents shift the responsibility to someone else, in this case, the government, and the government is more than willing to take their children.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it:  except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”    Psalm 127:1

Is it any wonder we are losing young people in the Lord’s church to the world?  Most will not want to hear this, but the greater truth is, we are selfish people.  We want more and more “things” that we hope will satisfy.  Parents are spending far too much time with the world and its influence than in God’s Word, and its influence.  Parents are much too preoccupied with the material than with the spiritual.  Children cannot be fooled.  They know what is important to their parents.  They tell me.  …and try as I may to not see the truth of their statements, they make known the truth truth.  I’ve heard it many times, from many children, from the very young to teens.

“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:  and the fruit of the womb is His reward.”   Psalm 127:3

….and though we have Bible classes for children, Vacation Bible School, Summer Youth Series and Christian Camps in the summer, they cannot take the place of the home, nor were they intended to.  Your children have to see the example in our home.  Prayer, study of God’s Word, training, loving them, giving them responsibility and discipline.  Worship/work/play.  A balance within every child’s life.  Showing them on a daily basis what is most important to us.

“. . . .a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”   Ecclesiastes 4:12

Children will not wait.  Once they are born, training should begin.  If they are left in the care of day care centers from birth until school age and beyond, other people will be training them, not the parents.  If God is not the center of the home, and training and discipline are not taught, then it is too late when they reach the teen years.  Children are being bombarded by media, humanism, situation ethics, evolution, cursing, drinking, drugs, materialism, divorce, homosexuality, etc.  They are faced with this everyday at school, and then most go home to an empty house and no supervision

“Train up a child in the way he should go:  and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:3

It is true that we can train children the way they should go, and they can still go the way of the world, but they go into the world knowing they were loved enough to have been taught in the way that God would have them be.  At some point, like the prodigal son, they may return.

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.  And am no more worthy to be called thy son:  make me as one of thy hired servants.  And he arose, and came to his father.  But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him.”  Luke 15:18-20

My son once had a fight with a young man at school.  I was always home when my sons returned from school; beware when a child comes home and places his arm around you.  He did that with me.  The first words I said to him.  “What happened?”  He and another young man, while the coach was out of the gym, threw basketballs at one another, words exchanged, but my son hurt the boy’s jaw.  Naturally we were called to the office with our son, and the parents of the other young man were called as well.  I remember the principal telling my son.  “Son, you will never be able to rest easy with any wrongdoing that you do.  It is because you have been taught at home the Biblical way to handle problems.”  The principal was also a Baptist preacher.

We cannot be everywhere at once.  It is a matter of priorities.  What comes first in our lives?  Children won’t wait, and they don’t fit into “to do” lists very well either.  May our Father bless your home, and may you do His will in all things.

Eileen Light