How Are You Training Your Children?

  25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. - Jn. 12:25

A good verse to always meditate on. Two contrasts, either you do or you do not! There is no middle ground. Do you love this world and the things you can gain and profit from it? Is your focus on worldly pursuits.

Many "Christian" parents these days are training their children to pursue the "American" dream - a better way of life, a better way of living then they, the parents, have accumulated in the world themselves.

Many "Christian" parents, while they will say that their children knowing Christ and serving Him are most important, yet in actions deny such claims as they sacrifice the spiritual for the carnal.

Most believe that their children need to have a college degree to amount to anything and make a "good living" according to worldly standards. But college is so expensive! So we need to get them involved in all kinds of sports, 4-H and a number of other activities in hope they can obtain as many scholarships as possible to help.

Now this is where is becomes even more sad in that when these activities conflict with spiritual grow, these activities are preferred, because they have bought into the lie that if they sacrifice these worldly activities, it will stunt their "American" dream. Therefore they sacrifice the "pearl of great price" for something far more inferior.

They have given into idolatry and friendship with the world teaching their children how to be conformed to the world and not to Christ. It's no wonder that "Christians" don't look or behave much different that the world they are call to separate themselves from.

Again, most allow their children to go to public schools, since the parents turned out so well, the public schools today won't harm our children either. Once again, the sad thing is that even when I went to public school in a small conservative town decades ago, I was taught many things that were contrary to God's Truth and looking back it had its effects on me - negatively. The things that are in the public schools today are even worse! Yet, how many "Christian" parents that allow their children to go to these institutions put their foot down and make a stand and say, "My child will not participate in this!"? Very few indeed.

Why don't parents pull their children out that their minds aren't poisoned? There are probably many answers to this question, one of course is that they can't afford to? Why? Because the bottom line is that their "American" dream would suffer. Yet, we know that anything is possible if it is truly our hearts desire. Which brings us back to the opening verse - do you love this world or do you hate it? Are you training your children to love it or hate it? If you want to prosper and want your children to have good success remember the words given to Joshua in chapter one:

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.