AND WHEN THEY ARE OLD

 

Ever suffer a consequence initiated by a wrong choice, a rebellious act, or a broken relationship? I can almost hear you groan. Are you saying, “Let me count the times and ways.”

I’m right there with you.

In the early ‘60’s I deliberately disobeyed God. Forty-nine years later, the consequences of that choice continues to billow. Like a hot air balloon in the lives of my children, that decision continually soars to greater heights in troubled skies.

God is faithful to forgive our sin and rebellion when we repent, but unfortunately the consequences of our foolish choices remain. That is why it is imperative to “train up your children in the way they should go…” because when they are old the consequences of your training—whether good or bad—will follow them. Forever.

Parents, you get to make the choice of good or bad training. But you aren’t allowed to choose the consequences.

Failure to teach children the law of the Lord, and the resulting consequences, parade across the TV screen every night during the evening news. The juvenile and criminal courts are full of men, women, boys and girls caught  in the consequences of ignorant or willful rebellion to God’s Word. And the failure of the church to follow God’s instruction to, “love one another,” and then, “go and make disciples,” have multiplied the consequences of bitter, hateful hearts all over the globe.

Only God can chisel the sin and shame from a hardened heart. Only God can take a hurting heart and make it healthy and whole again. Only God can rescue and transform a bitter heart into a tender and transparent one.

I wonder what the hearts of those young girls at Red Neck Heaven are becoming as they grow older? Caught in the sensual thrill of the moment, they become captives of the flesh which cries gimme, gimme, gimme. More, more, more. Do you think, after being exposed to the lustful attention of crowds of men day after day they can be satisfied in one marriage, with the attention of one man, for the rest of their lives?

Do young women brazenly use their bodies to attract young men in order to satisfy their need of an absent father’s love and attention? Have girls become so desensitized they don’t realize they are sacrificing the opportunity for God’s gift of a pure, lifelong relationship with one man? Or are they even aware of the possibility of joy and oneness in an until death do us part marital relationship, because of the examples we have given them? Could this be part of the divorce problem inside and outside the church?

And what about our young men? Mothers, you can verify the fact that your  boys are pursued with a vengeance by girls with a hormonal body, a cell phone, and a computer. Mere children, exploited and bombarded with delusions of fun, pleasure, and excitement. However, the consequences are life changing. Painful. Tragic. Is it any wonder so many men are addicted to pornography—even those in the pulpit?

Is it possible when we give our children carte blanche to the whims of all that surrounds them—movies, books, clothes, attitudes of rebellious friends, fads, the list goes on—we set them up to fail?

The only answer is to teach them God’s truth, that joy and contentment in life only come when you allow God to fill the hole in your heart. Seeking success and fulfillment the world’s way will bring disappointing, lamentable, even disastrous consequences.

What are you going to do today to squash the deception that is suffocating this world, seeking to destroy your child?

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on  your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up,” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7 NAS).

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