What God Wants For Your Life

“Do you know where your children are?”  Remember the public service announcement that was used in the ‘60s, 70s, and 80s?  It was used on television late at night and those who encouraged its use hoped that it would foster the observance of youth curfews and greater parental responsibility.

It might be time to ask Christian parents a similar spiritual question, “Do you know where your children are — spiritually?”

I am not suggesting for a minute that we can control the spiritual choices our children make.  Nor am I suggesting that you are a bad parent if your children are not Christians.  There are a variety of influences that bear on our children’s lives; and their choices are their choices.

But that is not the same thing as indifference.  And an increasing number of Christian parents are, quite simply indifferent to the spiritual choices their children make.  “Oh, it would be nice if they became Christians,” or “We would be pleased if they did,” are the sorts of things that I hear with increasing frequency.

But when push comes to shove, parents often take the path of least resistance in acquainting their children with their faith.

“Can’t confirmation be done earlier?”

“Do I need to insist that they attend church after the age of 12 or 13?”

“Why should I teach Sunday school?”

These are questions prompted by gentle capitulation.  And if we wonder why our children are unimpressed with our faith, we need look no further than the answer we might give to being asked, “Do you know where your children are?”

In the end, your children will reflect the faith and passion that marks your own life.  So the prior question might be this:

“It’s eleven o’clock, where are you in your Christian faith?”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.