in. I grew up here and my son s going to grow up here.” “But,” the judge reasoned, “You’re putting your son in an area where there are altogether dif ferent values. There are serious prob lem children there. Their parents are drunks, prostitutes, and the like. There are all kinds of problems. Your son just isn’t able to stand it. Why don’t you move away?” The man didn’t and his son went into the problem of juve nile delinquency deeper and deeper. In many of these sad cases the parents are guilty. We are responsible for the kind of a church to which we go and the kind of a school system in which A PRAYER FOR 1964 What shall I ask for the coming year? What shall my watchword be? What woulds't Thou do for me, dear Lord? What shall I do for Thee? Lord, I would ask for a holy year. Spent In Thy perfect will. Help me to walk in Thy very steps; Help me to please Thee still. Lord, I would ask for a trustful year. Give me Thy faith divine, Taking my full inheritance, Making Thy fulness mine. Lord, I would ask for a year of hope, Looking for Thee to come, And hastening on that year of years That brings us Christ and home. our children are educated. We ought to be concerned in the fight against pornography and filth which is flood ing our land. We should be concerned to get out in the forefront of some of these things for the sake of our chil dren. But basically, before all of the rest, the Lord has entrusted children to par ents that they might direct them by example and precept to accept the grace of God so that they might come to know Jesus Christ as Saviour. This is paramount and supercedes all else. What good would it do if I preached to thousands and yet my own children did not believe the truth of God? What 25
Chapter Seventeen A s parents it is far more significant for us to be concerned with our children than it is to succeed in busi ness, society, or even in the church. We become so foolishly attached to values which are not important. Our chief concern should be with reference to our children. For our last message together I want to point out that a very real reason why the Lord has given parents to children is to protect them from the encroachments of society and from the environment of life. We need to learn how much a child can stand. If he has been overpowered by the questionable influences around him, we need to take rather drastic and protective steps. We should be deeply concerned about the kind of schools we have. The same in terest should be noted in the social situations in which our children are found. This would involve their com panions, their habits, and the places they frequent. Are we fully aware of the fact that every area of life seems to be pushing our children into marriage before they are even mature enough to think of it? Because our civilization is sex-mad the end result is a rapidly ascending per centage of broken homes. These often come from teenage marriages. It seems that there isn’t time today to talk about illegitimacy in our teenage groups. We fathers and mothers should protect ourselves and our children from a society which is trying to throw chil dren together by such things as school dances. The youngsters are not mature enough to stand the temptations of the proper sexual experiences as the Lord intended. A boy came before the judge on a charge of breaking of the law. His fa ther was there and the judge said to him quietly, “Why do you live in that neighborhood? You don’t have to.” The man responded in a huff, “This neigh borhood is good enough for me to live
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