Conference yukon::christian_v7

806.0. "What are we doing to our children?" by VNABRW::WILLIAMS () Wed Sep 27 1995 06:43

    
    
  As a father, I have great concern how we are bringing up our children. Or 
  put it another way how we ARE NOT bringing them up. Not only our own 
  children but how immune we are to seeing children being misused. 
  
  WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?. We are accepting them as child 
  prostitutes, drug addicts and instruments of Satan indulging in his 
  practices.  
  
  WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?. We are giving them T.V. in an 
  unrestricted way, with porno and violence that teaches them that sex is for 
  everyone and with everyone to have. A T.V. where the heroine is the one 
  that eventually entices a man to leave his wife. etc. etc.
  Indirectly we are teaching them to be self centered, that you should have 
  everything and can get everything if you use force. We are teaching them 
  that morals are old fashioned. 
  
  WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?. We are bringing our children into a 
  fantasy world, a world without God. A world where we accept nothing less 
  than the best, where materialism is our God. Where abortion is an 
  alternative to being inconvenienced. 
  
  WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?. We are inspiring them to be self 
  centered, we are pushing them into carriers without evaluating if it is 
  suitable for the child, if the child can reach such heights and if the 
  direction is within the interest of humanity.
  
  YES we have a lot to answer for: the cruelty to children, the misuse of 
  children especially in the underprivileged countries, the misdirection of 
  our children in their carriers, our judgment of our children in their 
  failures, our letting technology develop in a direction contrary to the 
  interests of humanity.   
  
  WHAT ARE WE NOT DOING FOR OUR CHILDREN?. We avoid talking about God and why 
  we are here on this world. We avoid teaching them that giving is far more 
  important than receiving. 
  
  WHAT ARE WE NOT DOING FOR OUR CHILDREN?. We are not understanding their 
  problems. The problems they inherited from us when we made our demands on 
  this world without being interested in the consequences. The problems of 
  survival in a society that excludes substandard categories, where the 
  definition of substandard is defined by us.
  
  WHAT ARE WE NOT DOING FOR OUR CHILDREN? We are not recognizing that God 
  dwells in them and that when we approach them we are speaking to the temple 
  of the Holy Spirit. We are not treating them with respect. We are not 
  praying for them that God will take care of their future and we are not 
  putting it into His hands, asking His help.
   
  In England I know of two prayer groups purely formed to pray for our 
  children. If any of you would like to have your children included in these 
  prayers I would be more than happy to pass your intentions to the prayer 
  groups.
  Any requests please respond to my mail account: Peter Williams @WBG or on 
  the above node:  
  

RE: <<< Note 806.0 by VNABRW::WILLIAMS >>>

	A hearty AMEN to that!  

	May God abundantly bless the participants, efforts, and fruits of
	these prayer groups!

Thanks Peter.

Which was the country where a visiting missionary (it might even have been
Billy Graham) was asked "What can you do for us?" and he answered "I can 
give you clean youth."

Abraham was chosen because he would teach his children - Genesis 18:19 - 
and in Deuteronomy great emphasis is placed on teaching the next generation 
to know the ways of the LORD.  As you said, Peter - today's world seems 
bent on teaching new generations anything but the ways of the LORD.  But 
then, this is what we should expect.  This is an extra reason why we should 
be vigilant to express the LORD in all we do.

�  WHAT ARE WE NOT DOING FOR OUR CHILDREN? We are not recognizing that God 
�  dwells in them and that when we approach them we are speaking to the temple 
�  of the Holy Spirit. We are not treating them with respect. We are not 
�  praying for them that God will take care of their future and we are not 
�  putting it into His hands, asking His help.

This paragraph caught my attention in particular.  One reason is because of
the sentence "We are not treating them with respect."  Often, parents place
their children on a pedastal compared to the rest of the world, as if they
can do no wrong.  At the same time, they treat them casually at a personal
level, as though they had no importance - compared to the self-importance
of the parent.  This is presenting the child with a dual standard which is
very stressful to cope with, especially when it realises that the rest of
the world thinks fundamentally differently from this parent.  I think this
sort of selfish attitude in a parent is a foundational contributor to the
generation gap, and breakdown in communication between parents and their
children. 

To treat children with respect, apologise to them when we misjudge or hurt
them, give them realistic encouragement rather than an idealised image, yet
showing them throughout that right or wrong, we love them, is important.
This is true whether they have accepted Jesus as LORD or not.

							Andrew

My wife is leading a "Moms in Touch" group once
a week at our place.  This is a group that has gone 
nationwide in the US, whose sole purpose is to 
get together and pray for the kids in their school.  
(staff too.)   They meet and pray.  No lesson, no
real devotional, no gossip. Just prayer.  It's usually
mothers of kids in the same school, and they pray 
for that school, and the kids in it.  It's had a visible
impact on this school - this is about the 6th year there's
been a group here.

One way we can start now to reverse the trend!

- Don Randall