This week will be the opening week of school for many children around the United States.
Some children will just be beginning their educational journeys, while others will be coming to a conclusion of their formal educational careers.
In the former sense, teachers and parents will be setting precedents for the little novices to follow, while in the latter sense they will have already been putting into practice all the things they have been taught either by word or by example.
The Bible makes it perfectly clear that adults are to “Train up a child in the way he should go,” because, “Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
The whole idea behind training is to ready the young man or young woman for a lifetime of responsibility.
Responsibility implies that there is a right way of doing things and a wrong way, as well.
Unfortunately, too many parents and educators have completely lost their way when it comes to preparing their children or students for life.
Instead of treating children like children in need of righteous guidance, they are often abandoned to figure out for themselves their own courses in life.
And if they are not abandoned, they are treated by parents as if they are just another friend, and Lord knows we cannot offend our friends by making them behave or learn.
When either occurs, little Johnny or Suzy frequently end up learning some very bad habits from what they see on television or someone they have turned to who seems to have it together, and it often costs them dearly.
It is one of the reasons why so many children never make it much beyond their college years.
Every year an average of 1,100-college students commit suicide and it is no coincidence of the reasons why.
It is a huge responsibility to train children, because it is not just usable knowledge that the child needs, but a model to develop positive character as well.
So, if you are in charge of preparing either your own children or someone else’s this fall, please remember, what you teach them today will be carried out in their own words and actions tomorrow.
Please leave them with something of infinite value that one day, when they are old, they can look back on and pass along to their children and their children’s children.
Please also remember, you will only get one shot at it. So, do not blow it.
Otherwise, one day you may end up looking back, in regret, on these formative years and wishing that you had taken the time to teach something wholly other than what their lives ultimately turned out to be.
