The infant of today is the young man or woman of tomorrow, leaving home to enter life with the equipment largely provided by parents.
You, fathers and mothers—what have they seen in your house? Have you prepared them to face life, or have you robbed them of those things which they should have seen and experienced?
Has your example been such that they might profit by it? Have your concerns been centered on time or on eternity? on material or on spiritual values?
Has your son been conditioned to regard the making of a living, a “success” in life, of primary importance, or do the kingdom of God and his righteousness come first?
Has your daughter learned the social graces at the expense of spiritual truth? Does she know the source of true beauty? Has she the built-in safeguards to purity, or are her standards those of the world?
Christian parents have the future of the world in their hands. The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Character developed in the home can be the safeguard of tomorrow. The compromises of parents can become the weakness of their children. The folly of parents can develop into the undoing of their children. The flaws of training develop into the weaknesses of mature life.
The responsibility of parents is such that only God can give the wisdom, firmness, and love which must characterize the Christian home. Nor can this responsibility be shifted to other shoulders. Teachers, whether in church or public schools, have their own responsibilities, but they must be supplemental to those of the home, not the sole source of child training.
Basic to child training are the disciplines which center in God and his Word. That we live in a time of undisciplined lives—lives of adults and children alike—is a frightening thing. “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,” we are told in the Book of Proverbs; we also know this by experience. Christian parents must exercise the wisdom of reproof, of restraint as well as of guidance, if their children are to learn the lesson of true discipline.
What do your children see in your home?
Is yours a home where prayer is given its rightful place? Do your children see you turning to God, praying for guidance and help? Do they sense that there is a divine power available to those who look to God for specific needs? Do you pray with and for the little ones God has given you? Do your children know that God is near and that he can be talked to as a loving Heavenly Father? Is prayer incidental, reserved for emergencies, or a way of life in your home?
What place has the Bible in your own daily living, and in the training of your children? Is it a pious ornament on your table, or the Book of reference and inspiration to which you turn daily?
No child has been properly trained until he knows that the Bible is God’s Word and that it speaks to the deepest needs of the human heart. What attitude toward the Scriptures are your children learning from you?
Do you have a family altar, a place of prayer, praise, and the hearing of God’s truth to which all resort each day?
Again we ask: What have they seen in your house? What have your children experienced at your hand?
Have they had the blessing of discipline? Have they learned that you can say “Yes” in love, and “No” with equal love and firmness? Have they learned the meaning of honoring their parents? Is your example such that they should respect you?
What are the basic concerns in your home? Do things have first place, or do spiritual and moral values come first?
What place has the Church for you and yours? Is it incidental or vital?
Is the cause of world missions kept before the boys and girls under your roof? Do they sense the prime importance of world evangelism, of the needs of those who do not know Christ?
Are the needy turned away from your door? Do the disasters, sorrows, and privations of others bring tangible reactions from your home? Do your children know the joy of helping others?
What have they seen in your house? What have they heard in your house? Bickering and strife? conversations taken up with trivialities? the standards of Hollywood and its latest movies—or the standards of Christ?
Is there a spirit critical of neighbors, pastor, or friends? What is the impression—of love or of carping criticism?
Do your children see compromise with wrong? Do they sense that your words and actions do not jibe, that there is some basic compromise with sin?
This is written primarily to you parents because your responsibilities are great, the privileges and opportunities of molding young lives for eternity.
Moses expressed this responsibility to the children of Israel, the passing on of a godly heritage: “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deut. 6:7).
Such responsibilities carry over from one generation to another. Parents bear a priestly relationship to their children. Like Job of old they must pray for those God has given them. Like Joshua they must make the decision, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15b).
Your children will only too soon pass out into the world. With them will go the impressions and training of youth. They will go either equipped for life or unprepared to meet the temptations and buffetings which are inevitable. Their future is being determined today.
What have they seen in your house?
