Lesson 397: "Bringing Up Children"
Second graders who cannot tie shoes or zip jackets! Five year olds in strollers! Teens and preteens befuddled by can openers and ice cube trays! College kids who have never done laundry, taken a bus alone or addressed an envelope by hand! Are we raising a generation of children or a group to push button technology descendents? Do we have only ourselves to blame or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?
A mother of three said her teenage daughter literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull tops these days and when the teen takes down a can that requires a can opener her shoulders slump and she goes for something else. A visiting 12 year old took out an ice cube tray, stared at it helplessly because he had only seen a push button ice maker attached to the front of his parents' refrigerator. Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or draping them over a piece of furniture that they actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes' hanger. Many kids never learn to do ordinary household tasks. They have no chores and eat takeout and drive through meals instead of home cooking. And busy families who can afford it often hire the house cleaning and yard work done.
Bauerlein says in his book that there is a second factor; a loss of independence and a loss of initiative. I say there is yet another factor. All of the above should be of serious concern but a greater concern should be "raising up a child in the way they should go" (Pro. 22:6) which is the way of God. Do your kids (grandkids) know how to open and read a Bible? Are they still on milk instead to the meat of the Gospel (Heb. 5:12-14))? Do they study to show themselves approved by God (2 Tim. 2:15)? Have they called on the name of Jesus to be saved (Rom. 10:13)? We need not only to go back to some basics in mechanics but back to the spiritual basics and teach this generation about God!
Cowboy up and stop turning back to those weak and miserable principles that had you enslaved by sin (Gal. 4:8-11, 5:7-12)). You were running a good race (raising kids to know the Lord at one point). Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? Did peer pressure (Paul calls them agitators) among kids stop you from holding on to your teachings? This generation needs help! "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them" (Rom. 10:14)? Get on your knees parents/grandparents and ask God for help in helping this generation. They are worth your effort!