Before the Concrete Sets
Many people miss the nuance in this scripture:
Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
It began as a whispered question. Became a louder inquiry, and finally a loud roar. 'Why are our children leaving the church?'
As parents in today's world, our 'modus operandi' is, give birth, send to day care, send to a public school, watch them graduate, and wonder what happened. What we miss is, the scripture doesn't mention any of those things.
When we left God, our children began to leave us. There are many principles godly people/parents should be living by. But we have jettisoned most of them.
Matthew 18:3 says: "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
We focus on 'and become as little children'. As Christians or want to be Christians we need to focus on 'Except ye be converted'.
OUR hearts need to be converted. WE need to seek His way first. But we interject our want to's above God's way.
In reading Deuteronomy 6 there is no 'send them...' in this: 6:7 "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children: and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8) And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes..."
These scriptures should lead us: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:4)
I have heard stories about how generations back we had great men of renown speaking boldly and making and changing the lives of the populace in this country.
That was back when Bible and God were important. If you want to know why our children have or are leaving the church look at the homes they are coming from.
They may not be poor like the homes during the depression, but when we have cut our Gospel meeting length down to two or three days, where are our priorities?
