If a child grows up and is indifferent to the “church,” God will demand an explanation from the parents.
Parents are stewards of their children. This is an incomparable task. The most fearful thought a Father can have is that he may fail his task, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” (Eph.6:14).
Abraham was chosen to charge his children and his house-hold after him to keep the way of the Lord, (Gen. 8:19). God’s people of the Old Testament were told, “And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children,” (Deut. 6:4-7).
Some of God’s best people have failed this awesome task. Eli was one. The Bible says, “The sons of Eli were worthless men; they had no regard for the Lord,” (I Sam. 2:12). Not a few Christian parents have tasted bitter tears because their children grew up without regard for the Lord. The bitterness is enhanced because the parent often
knows that he planted the seeds of disinterest when the child was young.
Today parents are too permissive. If the teenage does not want to attend church, the parent permits him to follow his own inclination. This allows children to believe that attendance is optional, which it is not. If the teenager wants to engage in morally dangerous activity, the parents accede to his wishes. This weakness in
authority can only issue in a bitter harvest.
We will inevitably fail our challenging task as parents if we do not return to kind but firm discipline and instruction. God placed parents over the family for a good reason. If he desired the children to set family policy, He would have so ordered it.
-Allen C. Isbell