For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. – Proverbs 2:10
For every child there exists two very divergent paths: the path to pain and destruction or the path to life and joy (not that this path doesn’t have its own pain). The world will take you down the first path and God’s wisdom will lead you down the second. Why is it then that so many young people, even those that claim to have a personal relationship with Christ, choose the wrong one?
As most of us know (from experience), when you are young you feel that you must express your independence. Could it be that since Christian parents hold forth the path of biblical wisdom, their children often feel that rebellion against that wisdom is just such a path? It is a quandary and challenge for those who minister to and parent youth in today’s culture and it will always remain that way. We must find ways to help believing youth to express their individuality without abandoning biblical truth.
If they survive (and tragically some will not) the consequences of bad choices, they will learn, mature, and one day face the same challenges their parents once faced, doing their best to convince their children of these same truths. By God’s grace, we all emerge refined, humbled, and gratefully aware of our utter dependence upon the Lord.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. – Frederick Douglass
