Trying to Make Water Run Uphill
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. (Psalms 58:3) Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 6:7; Psalm 78:3-6; Ephesians 6:4; 2Timothy 3:15 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. (Psalms 127:3)
IN THIS WORLD, NOTHING IS AS VALUABLE, and nothing is as challenging as raising a child from the womb. They immediately become the center of the world and yet, they are a gift from God. We may think they belong to us, but, they belong to God because He made them, and we are raising them for Him.
THE FIRST PROBLEM WE HAVE WITH RAISING CHILDREN is that God made them with a will of their own and their will clashes with our will. “Feed me and feed me now!” “Change me and change me now!” The easiest thing is to simply give in to them until they are twenty (or thirty) and decide to leave home. I read this week where a couple went to court to evict their 30-year-old, dead-beat son from their home. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44215648 But, that’s not what God had in mind by giving children to parents to raise.
THE HOME IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING CENTER THE CHILD WILL EVER HAVE. It is intense the first five years. For thousands of years, governments of all kinds have recognized the role of parents in raising children. By law, in America, parents control children and property and this is in contrast to socialistic and communist governments that own everything and are the primary guardian of children. THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL IS THE ARM OF THE HOME. The public school of my day was much like the Christian school of today.
THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS IN AMERICA ARE LEGALLY "LOCO PARENTIS" or, “in place of the parents.” But that “in place of the parents” is limited and of short duration. Parents pay the tuition costs of teaching children in private schools. In contrast, public schools are tax-funded and assume more direct control of the children. Even in public schools, there is not a complete ownership of the children. If children are neglected and become wards of the State, and the State has to pay for medical treatments, then the State is more likely to decide whether or not the child will have a certain surgery.
RAISING CHILDREN SOMETIMES BECOMES LIKE trying to make water run uphill. It takes wise and dedicated parents to raise children today. When the young bodies begin to change into adults, they begin to assert themselves and form strong relationships with other young people which become their moral anchor rather than their parents. That is a sticky wicket and the importance of the parents’ accumulative influence begins to come into play.
OUR TEXT TODAY IS QUOTED OFTEN BY TEACHERS, PASTORS, and to a lesser degree by parents. I’ve been watching this process and have been involved in it as a parent and as a pastor/counselor for many years.
SEVERAL THINGS WORK AGAINST PARENTS when children reach the age of independence. Parents, today, are working long hours to provide money for the family. This cuts down on the time spent together with the children. TV, the hand-held electronic gadgets have become a robber of necessary family time and this involves parents as well as the children.
FAMILIES SHOULD BE EMPHATIC ABOUT having at least one sit-down meal at the table where there is no TV or gadgets and the phone taken off the hook. Pleasant conversation with no conversation that will condemn or catapult into a fire storm.
FAMILIES SHOULD HAVE FAMILY DEVOTIONS TOGETHER, daily and an age-appropriate Bible memory program. Bible verses should be memorized and should include some Bible chapters. One new verse per week and a workable plan that everyone understands and agrees to. Start young. “God is love.” John 4:8b.
I DETERMINED THAT MY CHILDREN WOULD KNOW 100 VERSES by the time they left home. It should have been more, including several chapters, including Psalms. I started memorizing Bible verses in the 2nd grade in public school. I kept working at it after I got saved two years later, until I had memorized several hundred verses. They come up today and are a great help.
I’M DISTURBED THAT SO MANY GIRLS ARE BEING MOLESTED AT HOME THESE DAYS. It is no longer so strange that boys are telling of being raped when they were young.Mixed marriages are contributing to part of it, but not all. Family members that visit the home and are known to the girls are responsible for a lot of it. One charismatic Bible teacher tells her audience of mostly women that her own father molested her over 200 times. When this happens, even one time, it is an awesome wound that generates deep-seated problems for years to come. But many of them are abused for years.
OFTEN, THESE WOUNDED GIRLS BEGIN TAKING DRUGS to numb the torment. Then it becomes an endless cycle and it takes the hand of God from Heaven to rescue them. Divorce of the parents is one of the prime things that sets bad things in motion. We know this from the testimony of the young people affected by it. At the same time, divorce is the only way out for some parents and it gives me no satisfaction to have to say that.
AS FAMILIES GET AWAY FROM THE BIBLE in their daily living, including the families of pastors and Christian leaders, the problems multiply. There is no substitute for genuine conversion and obedience to the Word of God. God snatched me as a brand from the burning. Some of my cousins didn’t do well because they didn’t know the Lord and were filled with their own ways.
RAISING A FAMILY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LIKE MAKING WATER RUN UPHILL. But you will have to be strong in the Lord if you are going to avoid some of the tragedies we are seeing today. Cling to God! Cling to the Word of God! Sing the better hymns that have some meat in them. Many of the Christians of the past testify that they learned much of their Bible knowledge from the rich hymns they sang.
I’M AFRAID THAT A LOT OF THE MUSIC BEING USED TODAY IS FEATHER WEIGHT. Much of what formed my core beliefs came from hymns I learned as a child and my teen years. We can sing My Hope Is Built and There Is A Fountain and Living By Faith in the same amount of time as the watered down songs. The first hymn I learned to play was: Nothing But the Blood. Solid! Good, solid hymns will help you raise your family.
Read Through the Bible in a Year
NOVEMBER 13, 2019 - WEDNESDAY
A.M Ezekiel 4-6 P.M Hebrews 10:1-23
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
Good Verse to Memorize:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalms 33:12)
Song for Today:
When I See the Blood (1:32) (1st & 2nd Grade: Calvary Christian School)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRybMkc3xqU
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Health Hint:
The freight train of cold air from the north has invaded our homes and it’s dry! Dry air dries out your nose and throat and promotes the growth of bacteria on the membrane surfaces. Solution: Get out your Vicks Vaporizer that you cleaned out and put away last spring. Put in a half-teaspoon of salt and fill to the “full” mark. Stir well. Keep it going day and night. Too much salt will make it spit in the floor. Reduce the salt by pouring out half the water and filling to the top mark. Add enough salt to make it work well.
People used to keep a tea kettle going on their wood-burning cooking stoves or a coffee can of water on their stove in the living room. So, this is a reminder, nothing new. If you have central air and heat with a built-in vaporizer, now is the time to have your technician to check it out and declare that it’s working perfectly. We don’t have that, so we use the VICKS vaporizer from now ‘till April.