Nuggets

What are you Preparing your Children

Well, I’m about to tell my age now, but when I was a child all the community activities were based around the Church. For much of my young life we had Church in the school house. School activities never interfered with the things of God.

Now we are hard pressed to find time for the things of God. Those who plan the schedule for school activities must not think about Sunday night and Wednesday church services. Teachers had, not only the right to discipline children but the responsibility to do so. I knew if I got a spanking at school, I would get another one at home. In those days, When God still had pretty much first place, even those who did not want to be a Christian, had good morals. A man’s word was his bond and his reputation.

We didn’t even know people used drugs for anything except sickness. The use of alcohol was sure not a socially accepted beverage, at least in our circle. Children didn’t have babies or run around killing other children. All the children that needed discipline, was not given drugs so no one would be bothered with them.

If that had been the case, I’m sure I would have been one of them. Our parents didn’t mind using the belt and no institution told them how to raise their children.

Growing up I never ask “are we going to Church,” I knew we were going. It never entered my mind to think different. I know my parents were not perfect , but I thank the good Lord, they trained me up in the things of God. They couldn’t force me to get saved, that is everyone’s free choice, but they sure could force me to be in the place to get the training and the opportunity.

It’s the strangest thing to me that parents insist on their children going to public school, and that’s good. But public school is training, just for this life. In this day and time, children get to choose if want to go to Sunday School and Church. Think about it, those things are training for their eternal life. Eternity is a “Forever” thing. The Bible says “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever” [1 Peter 1:24].

Eternity is forever. Now in my thinking,--- if I had a choice of what to prepare my children for, I think,--- No, I know, I’d prepare them for the long haul. “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” [James 4:14]. Our life here on earth is like just a mist in the span of eternity. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”[Prov. 22:6]. Not Always, but usually they do the example we set for them.

God loves us so much He chose us for a special life in Him. He knew us before the world began, He formed us in our mother’s womb, He created us so unique our finger prints are not like anyone else. Now we know our DNA is different to any other. Who could do an awesome thing like that, but our Heavenly Father, the creator of all things. Think about the iris of an eye or the intricate details of the inner ear, we cannot believe they evolved from some slime somewhere! What do your children believe, what are they being programed for? Sometimes we get so caught up in the things of this life we forget about what is really important. If you don’t train your children, someone else will. What are you preparing your children for?