Train to Reign

Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Last night my daughter sent her two brothers and I a scripture and asked our interpretation of the scripture through text messaging.   The three of us gave light of  our understanding of this precious word and being their mother, I stepped back, reread all the comments and thanked God for giving my children spiritual wisdom.   Unbeknownst to them, we had participated in a roundtable discussion. 

I thanked the Lord for the work He is doing in my children's life.  I thought about the countless hours of teaching and training that went into their lives as children just to get them to this point in their personal lives today.

To a young mom or dad, it may seem as if you are wasting your time working with your children on spiritual issues, but believe me, it pays off handsomely when you see the fruit of your labor.  Don't stop and believe me, it is one of the most rewarding achievements your children can possess...to know God intimately for themselves.

When my children were disobedient, they were disciplined with the rod of correction, but I would also make them write scriptures; usually the Ten Commandments, so that they would learn them.  I made up a song so that they could remember the Books of the Bible and sometimes they wrote down scriptures relating to their issue.  They grew up not hating the precious word, but embracing it.

The word wasn't used just for disciplinary purposes, but also for fun when the one with the most correct answers received candy.  They looked forward to home Bible Study because of the family time together and there was always a treat.

I'm sorry to see that children are no longer taught the Word of God anymore.  If the Church doesn't have a Children's ministry, then children are not taught.  Parents don't have time for their children these days.  Between jobs, homework, social media, television and cell phones, our children are being spiritually deprived.  They are starving spiritually without the knowledge of what's missing in their lives. Meals are rushed with no prayer of thanksgiving,  kids are sent to bed with no prayer of thanking God for the day or night and no one to tuck them in.  When kids get sick they are whisked off to the doctor without the  prayer of healing.  No wonder our young people are acting like psychopaths.  They have no idea who they are.  Yes, they may go to church, but many times it's just a gathering place or a family tradition.

When these spiritually deprived children who grew up going to church year after year move out on their own, they move as far away from God as they can because they never knew Him.  Mama may have known God, but she kept Him a secret until she went to Church.  Who is God?  They have no idea!  It seems to me that with all the Children Church ministries  that began to burst on the scene in the last 17  years that we should be producing some phenomenal Christians, but the opposite is true.  In the quest to draw young people, every type of madness is being allowed in church to keep the young people interested. 

So, we have young people without spiritual training in the home and very little in the Church...so what are we producing?  I can tell you what we are producing; faithless, hopeless, young people who struggle with their spiritual identity. They whine about who did them wrong in the Church or who hurt their feelings and run away from those who Jesus said to forgive 7x 70 in a day.  Love covers a multitude of sins.  Why are the young ones not taught to embrace the beauty of the Word; maybe the clue lies in the truth that the older Christians don't embrace it either.  Instead of understanding the Word of God which states that we will suffer trials, tribulation and persecution, they would rather separate themselves from the Church. Where's our power and tough skin?  No one is placing a knife around our necks.  Jesus didn't suffer criticism from the Romans, but by the hands of the religious order.  Will they stand for Christ?  How can they if they never knew Him?  They went to a Church that packages Jesus in an image that the young folk can swallow.  He was repackaged in their image instead of them being made in His image. 

I challenge parents to sit down and train, retrain, mold and teach  their children about the true and awesome God.  Some of you need to repent first and then go on a God journey with your children and it doesn't matter how old they are.  They may be 40 years old...just make the change.  I am totally convinced down to my very core that the most important gift we can give our children is the knowledge of God.  Everything in this life will fail or end, but their relationship with God is eternal.