Teach Your Little Lambs

 

At one point during the game, the coach said to one of the young players, “Do you understand what cooperation and what teamwork is all about?” The little boy nodded in the affirmative. “Do you understand that what really matters is not whether we win or lose, but that we play together as a team?” The little boy nodded yes. “Good,” the coach continued. “And when a strike is called, or you’re thrown out at first, you don’t argue, attack the umpire with a bat, or throw dirt in the opposing team member’s faces. Do you understand all that?” Again, the little boy nodded, “Well sure coach. That’s what you taught us.” “Good,” said the coach. “Please go over there and explain all that to your mother.”

I’ve been to a few youth sports games when the above conversation needed to take place. I remember one particular High School football game where one heckler complained about the players and coaches from the stands. Having had his fill of this one parent’s complaints, another voice cried out above all others, “I agree! Y’all are playing like a bunch of High School kids!” It’s sad to see parents act in such an irresponsible manner because you know they are instructing their children (and other’s children) to behave in a similar manner. God has given us who are parents an awesome responsibility – not only to teach our children what is right, but to live in such a way they can see that we are willing to practice what we’ve been teaching them to do.

[Proverbs 22:6] “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Researchers tell us that our ability to greatly influence our children is limited up to about age nine, and that our greatest influence is during the first few years of life. If we wait until our children are troubled teenagers before we decide to become serious about faith in God, we probably will have waited too late to really have a positive impact on their spiritual life. Along this line, several years ago I came across the following poem: “Mary had a little boy; His soul was white as snow. But he never went to Bible school, cause Mary wouldn’t go. He missed the story of the Christ that thrills the childish mind; While other children learned of God this child was left behind. And as he grew from babe to youth, she saw to her dismay; A soul that was once snowy white, became a dingy gray. Realizing now that he was lost, she tried to win him back; But now the soul that once was white had turned an ugly black. She even started back to church, and Bible study too; She begged the preacher, “Isn’t there something you can do?” The preacher tried, and failed, and said, “We’re just too far behind; I tried to tell you years ago, but you would pay no mind.” And so, another soul is lost, that once was white as snow; Bible study would have helped, but Mary wouldn’t go! (Author Unknown)

Moses told the parents of Israel to take the laws which God had given them and “…teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7). It was Jesus who asked, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mom’s and Dad’s, what profit is it to you if you gain the whole world and lose the soul of your children? What would you give in exchange for their eternal life? – career, money, sleep, excuses for being unable to be with them? May God bless those of you who are parents, as you strive to teach your children the love of God, and to love God. Teach them the Bible and lead the family by example - and as a general rule, your children will not depart, when they get older, from what they have learned, from you, and God’s Word.