I always wanted to be a teacher. Somehow it seems that I managed to get side-tracked and ended up doing something else. However, I must admit that when I hear some of the stories these days about our schools, I’m not so sure that I’d want to be a teacher. What has gotten us all into this trouble in the first place? One possible cause might be owing to the tremendous pressure these days on parents to push their kids further and further away in an ever fast moving and rapidly changing world.
There are some very specific and clear directions given in God’s Word to parents concerning the rearing of children. Proverbs 22:6 declares,
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
As a parent of three (and later on four!), I have to ask myself daily, do I train my children? It seems obvious to me that the word “train” implies spending a little time with my children. The responsibility to train is given decidedly to parents. It is not given to teachers to train our children once they start school.
Recently I listened to a debate on this issue and both sides brought up a number of different issues. There was discussion about the government and how unfair it is to mothers who stay at home; about how it is impossible to pay the bills unless both parents work; about how women need to get out of the house; about how especially the earlier years of a child are the most significant formative years; about studies proving this and about studies proving that. It was a lively decision, I must say. Regrettably not one person involved ever dealt with the key issue.
You see the simple fact of the matter is that God in His Word clearly declares that parents are responsible for their children. It Is Written that parents are to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The decision to raise children is a simple matter of obedience. Do we want to obey God’s Word or don’t we? I should think that God knows best how a family is to be ordered.
People commonly retort that they just can’t make ends meet if both parents don’t work. I sometimes wonder if this is a case of, “Well we got used to a certain standard of living before the kids came along and we just don’t want to give it up…” Clearly, this is not true of every case. However, the Bible still declares, no matter what the situation, that if you seek God and the things of God first, all the other things will be added unto you. Seek anything else first whether it be careers, clubs or convenience – then sit back and watch a little of the moral fibre of society unravel. The strength of a society is still dependent on the strength of a family. And more fundamentally, the stand of that family on the virtues and values of the scriptures.
When we as parents make the decision that we would rather leave the rearing of the God-given heritage of children to someone other than ourselves, do we not see that we are walking away from a solemn responsibility endued upon us by God? Are we thinking more about ourselves than our children?
In closing, I challenge us as parents to take a stand on the Word of God. Let’s fulfill the responsibility given us by God to train our children. It might seem a little simplistic of me to this ask this but, “If we don’t want to spend the time required to train them, why have them?”