By Jim Miller
Gray, Maine.
I can't help but think that with all that we see going on today that if we had stuck to raising children to respect others and that if we had not spared the rod or in most cases thrown it away, it would be as bad as it is. Back in the sixties maybe even before it seems parents started letting other determine how children should be brought up and gave up their right to raise their children to the government.
God was taken out of the equation and put on a shelf so that men could determine how kids were to be treated and discipline became a thing of the past. Now these children are grown and because they were not taught right from wrong and because they have no idea what real morals are we are now reaping what was sown.
The abdication of parental rights and responsibilities has led us down this slippery slope to where we are now. I am afraid it is just going to continue to get worse from here on. Unless a child is brought up in a home where love is also accompanied by discipline and Bible teaching you end up in the mess we are in today. Parents now are afraid to raise their children with strict rules and punishment for fear someone will turn them in as abusers when what is needed is a good whooping out behind the woodshed like it used to be. I had my bottom tanned many times growing and I know some of you did too and it never killed us. It taught us to respect authority and that there were consequences for bad behavior. It gave us a set of values a moral compass to follow.
Grandmother always had a bible on the kitchen table and a strap on the wall if one didn't work the other was put to use. I never died from either as you can see. The fact of the matter was Grandmother never hesitated to use which ever on was necessary and didn't put up with others telling her she could use them. Parents today need to get back to their Bibles and teach and train up their children in the ways of the Lord. If anything is to change in our society for the better it rests on the shoulders of parents.
“The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Prov. 29.15).
If we want to change the direction this country is headed it is going to require a massive teaching effort to turn this situation around. We can't expect the government, the schools or social organizations to do the teaching that the parent's are required too. The fact is, even the Church can't succeed in that teaching. The proper teaching has to be done on the most basic level by the parents. Parents are going to have to accept their responsibility and teach and discipline their children guiding them to live by the proper standards. Of course, it should be by the conviction that the Bible is that standard.
The responsibility for this teaching can be found in several places in the New Testament. "Aged-women" are told to "teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed" (Tit. 2:3-5). Paul gave this instruction: "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bare children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully" (1 Tim. 5:14).
Raising children properly is not just the woman's responsibility it is also a responsibility of men. Men are to provide for their own house, and if they do not, they have denied the faith, and they are worse than infidels (1 Tim. 5:8). No man has provided for his household who does not teach his children how to act. Paul said, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). When parents – both father and mother – address themselves to teaching and training their children then and only then will society change.
It is going to be a long hard road if we intend to get back to the moral standards of the Bible or even that of our Grandparents. If you want to see any real change for the better in this country then you the parent must start being the example and compass by living a Godly life and passing it on to your children.
