We have… had fathers
who disciplined us… No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those
who have been trained by it. Hebrews
12: 9, 11
I noted on the news today that a lady has
been charged with a crime for letting her young child drive the family
vehicle. We usually don’t allow children
to make decisions that affect their safety and that of others. Children lack the judgment to make weighty
decisions.
This may seem rather obvious, but wise
parents limit their kid’s time on the play-station. They make their kids do their homework, eat
vegetables, take baths, brush their teeth and go to bed at a decent hour. No child naturally chooses these things. That’s why parents make the decisions.
Don’t shoot me when I say kids shouldn’t
be allowed to pick churches, either. Please,
don’t think I have it out for any set of churches. We are all on the same team. I’ve been a youth minister. I’ve done the pizza parties, ping-pong
tournaments, Kings Island trips, short term “mission” vacations, stayed up all
night at lock-ins trying to make church fun.
At one time I tried to be hip for Jesus.
It’s just that statistics suggest it
doesn’t work. In my tradition, over 80%
of the children who have been raised in large youth groups apart from
traditional assemblies no longer attend church by the time they turn 25. It turns out that fun relationships with other
children do not solely impart faith. Kids learn forgiveness by watching it
practiced among adults. Kids learn of Jesus by feeling the gravity in an older
saint’s smile. They come to love
scripture, not when it’s been made relevant to their adolescent drives, but
when they are brought within hearing distance of a different world. It turns out that whatever substantially
helps their parents’ spiritual lives ends up being far more meaningful for kids
in the long run.
Parents ought to drive the car.
