"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6
"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." - I Corinthians 15:33
When I was at college, I got into a debate once with one of my fellow students about sending kids (specifically very young children) to public school. I was arguing that it's not good for them; he was saying it's a tool for evangelism.
"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." - Proverbs 22:15
Children need to be trained first; they need to be taught and schooled and educated before they can teach someone else. They need to have foolishness driven out of them. How many kids are even saved before they go to kindergarten or first grade?
Train them from a child in the right way, and when they are OLD then they can be trusted to remain in it. But only if they're trained as a child. If they only get half the training, they're only going to stay half in the way (if that much). If you quit training your kids when they become teenagers, they're not going to stay in the way. You might have to change HOW you go about it, but teenagers are not old. They still need training, teaching, direction.
If you send your kids out into the world when they are too young to discern between the unclean and the clean, they are going to spend a lot of time around evil living. And it's GOING to rub off on them.
I'm not a social person. I'm a homebody; I like staying at home; I'm not good at making friends; I don't generally talk much. I didn't have a lot of trouble with that one for a long time. Then I got the internet while I was a stupid teenager. And after some time, I got comfortable. And evil communications corrupted good manners. To this day, my brain automatically hears innuendo in innocent things that I otherwise wouldn't have given a second thought. (Part of why I love my Zack - most of the time, he misses it completely and I don't have to think about it any further. There's no comment, no smirk, no look. It's not acknowledged. And that is SOOOOO refreshing. Even amongst Christians, there's usually SOMETHING. Not with him.)
Evil living rubs off on everyone. And thanks to internet and television, we have it brought into our houses. I used to watch a TV show. It was funny and quirky and the characters habitually said, "oh my god" usually many times in an episode. I started to catch myself thinking it. And then, one day, it came out. I don't know how, because I'd been thinking "oh my goodness," but it did. I stopped watching the show; it hasn't happened since. That happened to me as an adult; how much more is evil going to have an impact on young minds? Kids, who have a tendency to absorb EVERYTHING. Kids who learn to read by hearing their parents teaching their older sibling to read.
Can kids evangelize? Sure. All Christians are told to spread the gospel. But that doesn't mean you put them in a public school. That's like saying I should send my teenager into a slum because they need to evangelize. You can spread the gospel wherever you are; you don't need to make your kids spend six-eight hours a day in the world for them to talk to someone about their Lord Jesus.
"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." - I Corinthians 15:33
When I was at college, I got into a debate once with one of my fellow students about sending kids (specifically very young children) to public school. I was arguing that it's not good for them; he was saying it's a tool for evangelism.
"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." - Proverbs 22:15
Children need to be trained first; they need to be taught and schooled and educated before they can teach someone else. They need to have foolishness driven out of them. How many kids are even saved before they go to kindergarten or first grade?
Train them from a child in the right way, and when they are OLD then they can be trusted to remain in it. But only if they're trained as a child. If they only get half the training, they're only going to stay half in the way (if that much). If you quit training your kids when they become teenagers, they're not going to stay in the way. You might have to change HOW you go about it, but teenagers are not old. They still need training, teaching, direction.
If you send your kids out into the world when they are too young to discern between the unclean and the clean, they are going to spend a lot of time around evil living. And it's GOING to rub off on them.
I'm not a social person. I'm a homebody; I like staying at home; I'm not good at making friends; I don't generally talk much. I didn't have a lot of trouble with that one for a long time. Then I got the internet while I was a stupid teenager. And after some time, I got comfortable. And evil communications corrupted good manners. To this day, my brain automatically hears innuendo in innocent things that I otherwise wouldn't have given a second thought. (Part of why I love my Zack - most of the time, he misses it completely and I don't have to think about it any further. There's no comment, no smirk, no look. It's not acknowledged. And that is SOOOOO refreshing. Even amongst Christians, there's usually SOMETHING. Not with him.)
Evil living rubs off on everyone. And thanks to internet and television, we have it brought into our houses. I used to watch a TV show. It was funny and quirky and the characters habitually said, "oh my god" usually many times in an episode. I started to catch myself thinking it. And then, one day, it came out. I don't know how, because I'd been thinking "oh my goodness," but it did. I stopped watching the show; it hasn't happened since. That happened to me as an adult; how much more is evil going to have an impact on young minds? Kids, who have a tendency to absorb EVERYTHING. Kids who learn to read by hearing their parents teaching their older sibling to read.
Can kids evangelize? Sure. All Christians are told to spread the gospel. But that doesn't mean you put them in a public school. That's like saying I should send my teenager into a slum because they need to evangelize. You can spread the gospel wherever you are; you don't need to make your kids spend six-eight hours a day in the world for them to talk to someone about their Lord Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment