children who are as wayward and sinful as anyone could ever be. Does the fact that these condi tions are presented in the Word, and certainly are in evidence in our society today, undermine the importance of parental example and teaching? Certainly not, for children are influenced, as all peo ple are, by the law of association. In many respects, the parent- child problem exists today because the home and parents have only a part o f the training given to children. When the livelihood, schooling, social and religious life were all centered in the home, there was much more parental in fluence. Now outside influences have taken over a majority of these things and the home, to a great extent, has become a meet ing-place for meals and sleep. Ra dio, television and secular maga zines have brought much o f the world’s philosophy into the home, so that even when people are within the home, the outside in fluence continues. Therefore par ents who do seek to train their children in the ways of the Lord find that their voice and example are only one among many. Every parent should seek ways to give his voice and example more em phasis in the life of his child. There are two ways he can go about accomplishing this: 1. Give more time and interest to the needs and desires of the child. Keep the communication channel clear and comfortable. 2. Curtail in every legitimate way the out side influence that does not pre sent a way of life compatible with that which the parent desires for his child. When all has been said about the value of parental influence and teaching, there still is an impor tant item to emphasize and to which to give much attention. The Bible is very clear in its insis tence that every person has voli tion and makes his own choices. People, including children, often exercise this power o f volition in harmony with what they want and desire and not necessarily according to what they have been JULY, 1968
taught — what they know to be right and desirable in the over all picture. Every Christian parent should realize that no amount of teach ing of good morals and proper manners will ever give the child spiritual life. Spiritual life only comes from an identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. Every child must be born again (John 3:7) and this can only take place when the child, o f his own voli tion, accepts Christ as personal Saviour. Satan is delighted to have people good and religious, if by this condition he can keep them from seeing their need of Christ and of accepting Him as Saviour. Satan is also gratified to bring into the minds o f the chil-
dren of Christian parents the glamor of the world and the en ticement and enjoyment of sin, if by this method he can keep them from accepting Christ or, if they are Christians, to make them of no value to the Lord and a dishonor and heartbreak to their parents. The thing that has been an added burden for these parents is that not only they themselves feel they have been a failure as parents and as Chris tians, but also unfortunately their Christian friends often excel in pointing out to each other, if not to the parent, the areas of the parental failure. All who are par ents with grown children will ad mit immediately to hundreds of failures in the rearing of their children. Hindsight is so much better than foresight! However, as I have counseled with Chris tian parents of delinquent chil dren, I have found that they have made no more mistakes than many who have no delinquent children. Sometimes, it seems, they have done a superior job of giving of themselves for the men tal, physical and spiritual benefit of their child. But in spite of all this, the child has exercised his God-given volition in a different direction than his training and influence would have led him. It is because of this power within man to choose his own way that the Bible emphasizes that “ every one shall give an account of him self to God” (Rom. 14:12). No one will be able to blame some one else for the kind of a life he has lived or his eternal destiny. This is true o f adolescent chil dren as well as adults. It is my prayer that these re marks will cause the church fam ily to take a different attitude from the one it often does toward Christians parents w ith rebel lious, sinful and unsaved children. Let us remember that but for the grace of God they could be our children. Let us bear with them their burdens and thus obey Gala tians 6 :2, “ Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” 39
Entrance to Emmanuel Faith Community Church, Escondido, Calif.
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