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A Warning to Parents There are eyes watching you. Watching you eat, watching you play, and watching you worship. They are the eyes of your children and the children around you. And if you think they don't see what you do, and imitate it, you are wrong!!! Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Titus 2:7 tells us how we should go about achieving that training. "In everything set them an example by doing what is good." Deuteronomy 6:6-9 takes this instruction a step further. "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Notice that Moses uses the pronoun "you". He wants to be sure that the reader understands this is not something we do to children, but with them. We are to set the example for them. And they are watching. I will share two examples from my personal life of this very fact. At the age of two years old my son Michael had become quite adept at copying me. One weekend, for some reason, I used the term "holy moly" a lot. On Sunday afternoon, one of his sisters dropped something and before anyone else could say anything, Michael exclaimed, "Holy, Moly!!" I was just thankful it wasn't something more derogatory. The second example is one of a more positive nature. Before every meal our family bows their heads and has prayer. When I came along Michael felt it was his job to pray. He generally began with, "dear Jesus". But, I always started my prayers with, "Heavenly Father". It was not very long until he began his mealtime prayer with, you guessed it, "Heavenly Father". His mother wanted to know where he had gotten that, and the girls told her that it was how I started my prayers. We all laughed, and I got a dose of reality. We all influence the children in our lives. We can't avoid it. The bad news is; this influence can be harmful to their development as children of God, if we do not make good decisions in our own lives. The good news is; this influence can be beneficial if we choose to live by God's ordinances and commands. The choice is completely up to you and I. Will I cripple my child's chances at becoming a God-fearing Christian, or help to develop within them a deep spiritual walk with the One and Only Risen Savior? In Christian love Pastor Rob Click here for Pastor's Page Archive |