When we were very young, we were trained by our parents to do certain things. For example, we all once wore diapers but our parents trained us to use the toilet. We learned independence from the proper training and learned how to make choices, hopefully the right and Godly ones.

Some are very blessed and were raised in a God-fearing home. I was not so blessed, although my mom did take us to church at least once a year. Other Sundays, if I attended church, I went with a neighbor who invited me. I learned some things in Sunday school and church, but it wasn’t a priority to me. I was being trained, you see, not to value the things of God. Then, when I went to college, I didn’t attend chapel or church at all, or at least, not that I can recall. Again, I was an adult by then and was making my own choices, but they were based on what I had learned as a child. It wasn’t until I was out on my own, in my own place, that a bold neighbor cultivated a friendship with me and led me to salvation. Then, and only then, did I begin to get my priorities straight. From that day in February, 1973, I changed what was important in my life. I attended church regularly, started reading my Bible and found a good Bible-believing church to attend. Married in 1973, we had our first child in 1974 and then began the hard work of training our own child. I’m not referring to toilet training…no, something so important that I consider it a solemn responsibility of all parents. We are to train children on the correct path to God. I’m sure that if you know anything about animals, you know that they can be trained. I have trained my cat to sit and to beg for treats. Training took discipline on my part since I had to patiently show her what I expected each time I held a treat out. Now, I just say sit or point and she does. Training a child also takes discipline…daily showing them the way of the Lord and not accepting the sinful nature that always comes forth in all children. When we disciplined our children, we prayed with them afterwards and talked to them about what they had done that was wrong. We used a paddle (horrors, right? Corporal punishment that is not acceptable today!) when they showed willful disobedience to something that we had told them they could or could not do. We believed that if they chose not to obey us when they could hear our voices and knew our expectations, how could we ever expect them to obey and follow God? But there came a day in their lives when they were adults and were making their own choices. They may still come to me for advice, but their decisions are their own and have been for almost two decades now.

Each of us has a sinful nature that we have to deal with on a daily basis, making choices that may have eternal consequences for ourselves and others. I cannot do good on my own…I need the Lord’s help on a daily basis. That is what I tried to teach our children…that God will help us make the right choices if we just cry out to Him. To say that I am dismayed with the way that our society is going is a gross understatement. Sin is rampant and sometimes not even recognized as sin anymore since it has become so acceptable. But that doesn’t negate the parental responsibility to train the children in the right way. So many parents have decided not to parent. They want to be friends with their children and forget the whole discipline thing. The lack of discipline shows in our society…murders, rapes, general lawlessness everywhere. When I was teaching high school, it was common for a student to get into trouble and during the conference that I held with the parents, it was frequent for the parents to make excuses and not to hold the child accountable for the wrongdoing. That happened so often that I just got accustomed to it; but I’m here to tell you that it wasn’t always that way. For the first two decades that I taught, most parents held their child accountable for whatever rule they had broken and expected them to suffer consequences for it. Nowadays, in my opinion, parents are not holding their children accountable so the first consequences the child may suffer may be in the justice system. Sad, isn’t it? Likewise, I have seen many parents not hold their children to the Godly standard of one man, one wife for life! Thus has entered into our society the harmful practice of “sleeping around” until you find the right mate. What?!? Was that in God’s Word and I missed it? No, God means for us to have an honorable relationship with one person. People are not like a car that you can test drive and then take it back when it’s not exactly what you expected. People have hearts that get attached and get hurt, and God knew that. I think that He established the way a relationship should be. You meet someone that you are interested in, you get to know one another better, you date, you get serious about each other, you get engaged and then you get married. In today’s society, though, it seems that relationships are like a local Wal-Mart. You buy something, use it for a few days and take it back, never mind the damage that was done to the item when you were using it for your benefit. It has become so acceptable in our society for young people to live together that now couples are having children together and are not married; they just don’t want to make that commitment. Well, I am a firm believer that commitment was established by the Lord and marriage is a picture on earth of what our relationship with God is supposed to be like. We are not supposed to jump from one god to another trying them out; there is One God and He is a jealous God who created us and desires a relationship with us. So, even though our tendency is to be sinful and make wrong choices, it is the responsibility of the parent to train a child to make right choices, to know that relationships with the opposite sex are meant to be Godly and pure. It’s part of the training we are supposed to do when the children are young. By the time they are making their own choices, it is our fervent hope and prayer that they are making the right choices, the ones that would please God.

Sin knocks at our door, no matter where we are in life. But we don’t have to answer the door. We can choose instead to make the choices that we learned when we were younger because we were trained. I did not begin my Biblical training until I was in my 20’s, but I was still trained. Are you trained? Did you train your children? Are you still training them? Are you teaching them to rule over sin or does sin rules their lives because they never learned the valuable lesson of following God, no matter the cost? I hope and pray that you are training them to make righteous choices, ones that they will not be ashamed of when they stand before our Holy God. One day, you will have to let them go to make their own choices, but, like me, you can continue to pray for them that their choices will be the right ones and to express your opinion in a respectful way when it is not. Blessings for a day made up of right choices and love!