In His Name Devotionals
WHO’S MINDING OUR CHILDREN? (4)
In His Name Devotionals
WHO’S MINDING OUR CHILDREN? (4)
“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
When Paul, speaking to our children in Ephesians 6:1-3, gave specific guidance on how children are to treat their parents, he didn’t stop there. While he communicated God’s command that children are to obey and honor their father and mother, he also told us as parents how to instill obedience and respect in our children in the next verse, when he advised us to raise our children in the training and instruction of the Lord. Paul also warned us in Colossians 3:21 against embittering our children for fear it will serve as a discouragement to them. How do we embitter our children? We do so by failing to recognize the nurture they need, by divorcing ourselves from their lives, by failing to treat them respectfully, by being reluctant to apply the discipline they require, by being inconsistent in the way we respond to them and by ignoring the principles Jesus taught us in our relationships with them.
Our biggest mistake as parents sometimes is our inability to recognize the importance of the example we set for our children in how they will develop. The signals we send to them do not always correspond to the lessons we try to teach them.
Who’s minding our children? In many cases today, not the parents. We have delegated our parental duties to the community while we pursue earthly riches. We cannot let Jesus’ love manifest itself through our lives to our children when our children never even have an opportunity to observe us in our roles as parents. Rather than taking the time to extend Christian influence over our children, we allow the limitless forms of entertainment we have created and the people to whom we entrust them to mold them in our stead. God never has a chance because we don’t cultivate an atmosphere where he can thrive and become the focus of our children’s lives.
Paul called Timothy his true son in the faith, recognizing his youthfulness. In his second letter to Timothy 3:1-5, Paul cautioned Timothy against the Godlessness that would prevail in the last days. He warned that people would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Does this profile of the lost soul sound familiar? Does it describe in general terms the generation coming of age in the ‘50’s? Probably not. Does it sound more like the present generation or, perhaps even worse, the one we as parents are currently raising?
History has been filled with evil people and evil deeds. Empires and nations have risen and fallen on the whims of a few. The ultimate question, however, is whether a preponderance of the earth’s population has ever before surrounded itself with the trappings of materialism to the extent we have or whether it is our generation that has redefined greed and taken it to new levels.
In conclusion, Paul encouraged young Timothy (2 Timothy 3:16) to use the Scripture for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. This should be our rallying cry in preparing our children for their life on earth and their eternity in heaven.
