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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 4, NUMBER 25, JUNE 20, 2004 JUST THINKING ABOUT THE FAMILY PART 5 Continued from last week… Even within a family that stays together there are ways that the children can be “sinned against.” In our modern society it is often the case that both the mother and the father work outside of the home. There are circumstances where this arrangement is necessary simply to provide for the necessities of life – food, clothing, shelter, and so on. There are many other situations in which this arrangement is found where the primary purpose is not to provide the necessities, but to provide the luxuries. So the children often have the best toys money can buy, and all of them; they have the nicest clothes and money in their pockets, late-model cars to drive and everything else of a material nature they desire – but they don’t have their parents at home to talk to. It certainly seems that money breeds the desire for more. Let me give you a common scenario that is often played out. There will be a married couple, both of them working and spending everything they make. Children come, but they are too far in debt to allow the mother to stop working, so the children go into day care. Day care costs a lot of money, so every bit of extra they might have had now goes to paying that. However, the more this couple has, the more they want. So as one credit card gets paid off, another gets filled up. Or perhaps even more frequently, when one credit card hits its limit, another one is applied for, received and used. Soon the old house isn’t good enough. A new one is needed in a nicer neighborhood with a humongous monthly payment. New cars are also added to the mix, and even though they may be moving up in their companies, they are also moving deeper and deeper into debt. All overtime must be worked; both of them are constantly tired, and with that tiredness comes a certain shortness of temper. They fuss with one another, they fuss with the kids, and what the kids really want more than anything else is to have their mom and dad. In this common scenario, attendance at services and Bible study becomes just another demand on their limited time. Instead of being an oasis of calm and a time of spiritual refreshing, it becomes more of a chore. Before long you will hear, “I was just too tired to come”, and sitting at home with the parents are the children. Their Bible study is neglected but not their education. For as they sit at home with their parents who are just too tired to go to services, those children are learning. They are learning that there are other things more important than service to God. They are learning that secular work and the things it will buy are more important. They are learning that physical comfort is more important. They are learning that God fits in when it is convenient to put Him in. When this happens, the children involved are most assuredly being “sinned against.” It is sad, but true, that many times couples become more spiritually-minded as they get a little older and wiser. They will become more faithful in their attendance, realizing that there really are more important things than career and a big house. Sometimes they even begin to get personally involved in the work of the church. Oftentimes these same couples will suffer the terrible heartache of seeing their children leave the Lord altogether and with tears in their eyes express a lack of understanding, “How could this have happened?” I will tell you how it happened. Because when the children were small and the foundations being laid, the parents were most concerned about things that matter the least. The truth of Proverbs 22:6 is seen everyday. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” There are parents here who need to take a close look at themselves in the mirror of God’s Word and ask, “What am I doing to myself?” and more importantly, “What am I doing to my children?” We will have more to say next week, if the Lord wills. Greg Litmer GO FORTH TO LIFE Go
forth to life, oh! Child of Earth. Though
passion’s fires are in thy soul, Go
on from innocence of youth Then
forth to life, oh! Child of Earth, Samuel Longfellow
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