What is it that brought millions of immigrants to our shores? I’m sure there were many reasons, but we can all agree that one predominant aspiration was that many mothers and fathers who found their way to Ellis Island came because they wanted new hope and a brighter future for their children.
My grave concern is that the very reason many came to these shores (our children) is about to be lost forever. Let me explain it another way. We’ve had great hope for our children’s economic prosperity. That hope today is fading like a setting sun. We are selfishly saddling them with a national debt they will never be able to bear. We long to have our children enjoy a healthy spiritual and social life. Those values we feel important for a healthy society are constantly under attack from many fronts and we are rapidly losing ground in that battle.
Did you know that 75% of our youth believe there is no such thing as “absolute truth” and that all truth is relative? Did you know that 83% of our High School students have been sexually active? Did you know that 40% of our 8th graders have used illicit drugs? Did you know that 78% of our inmates grew up in a single parent or no parent home?
We are told by the Psalmist that “children are a gift from God,” yet we have aborted 55 million since 1973. If the child survives the mother’s womb, many of our young ones feel they are a burden to their parents, not a blessing from God. The main reason we are gradually increasing in our population is not because of the natural pro-creation of the American family but because of immigration, both legal and not. Couples living together outside of marriage is a growing trend that keeps the divorce rate at about 55%. We can agree that divorce or illegitimacy is not a healthy upbringing for any child.
Children are more afraid of the divorce of their parents than they are of the drug dealer or physical abuse. Some researchers on the family feel that divorce is more damaging to a child’s heart than even sexual abuse. I don’t know if I agree with that, but nevertheless, such findings reveal the seriousness of a broken home. Divorce is a sin against the child but few parents seek the forgiveness of their children after the home has been broken apart.
Today’s child is forced to grow up too quickly. By the influence of the media, peer pressure and lack of a healthy family environment, today’s child loses their innocence and becomes a product of society’s demoralization. Suicide, addiction, self abuse and violence are too often the outcome for the children God has blessed us with!
We have a wonderful missionary outreach program called “Save the Children” that encourages us to sponsor a child in a developing country, but what about our own? Do we spend the time, show interest in their lives and equip them with spiritual and moral safeguards that will enable them to survive the constant attacks on their mind, spirit and body? What is invading or permeating the mind and heart of your child? Too many parents provide the sports, dance lessons and other club involvements for their children but neglect the most important need – the spiritual. These parents run their children all around during the week for these appointments but fail to bring them to church! Doesn’t the Proverb exhort parents to “Train up a child in the way they should go?”
What can we do to raise our sons and daughters the way God would have us? First of all, have them! Many parents don’t want the responsibility of any children so they choose not to have a child. The root problem here is “fear” and “lack of responsibility.” Secondly, teach them! Do not leave that responsibility to other people or influences that may not embrace your belief system. Thirdly, demonstrate to them that they are secure in their family life and you will always be there for them when they need your help and advice. Lastly, learn from them. Didn’t Jesus constantly use children as an object lesson to teach profound truths to the adult? “For such is the kingdom of heaven!”
Our children need not be part of the sad statistics I quoted before. Our children must be special and equipped to make a difference in their generation. The other day I asked my 24 year old 6th child if she believed she was part of the “terminal generation.” She indicated that she was determined to be a beacon of hope to her generation and leave the time table of God’s coming to Him. May God help us to raise sons and daughters as sharp arrows who are able to pierce the darkness and turn many of their generation to righteousness!”
*********************
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MYCHAL: “Thanks for reading this article! If you enjoyed it, please sign up to receive new articles via email by clicking here. We HATE spam as much as you do and we promise to NEVER, EVER, sell your information to anyone EVER! We will only share with you ideas and information that we feel is worthy of our subscribers. Remember, just click here to sign up for our email alerts. Thanks!”
Print 
PDF
Pastor Nash,
We are losing our perspective about our gifts from God. Certainly one of them is our gift of liberty and what we have termed “The American Dream.” As America increasing thinks it’s fashionable or contemporary to become part of a globalist society, we might do well to list to what one of our great communicators had to say on the subject.
What would Reagan say about the American Dream? In the not-to-distant past, he told it this way:
“Not too long ago two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.” And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are! I had someplace to escape to.” In that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”
RoseAnn, thanks for your comments. I, too, believe we are at our “last stand.” Everything is at stake and I want to be found faithful! Blessings!
Pastor Nash, Thank you. Your words are welcome tunes to my eyes that reach into the soul and gives me pause to think and ‘hope.’. I pray you are right about enough children who are enlightened by their parents and Ministers of God’s Word and will spread the joy of knowing Christ. We need that more than ever right here in the United States. When my granddaughter was going on a “medical” mission into Africa, I asked her, “Why?” “To help the African women deliver their babies and tell them about God’s word,” she replied. I asked her to think about going into the ‘guts’ of New York City or out of the Loop in Chicago or into the depths of Detroit… – we Americans need that kind of visitation and help that my granddaughter thought was so necessary in Africa.
I began to see the shift away from God in the 60s and 70s. Then, another shift back to God after 9/11/2001. Short Lived. I pray it doesn’t take another disaster to untie with each other and God. Some families are designating one weekend a month for “family.” No cell phones, iPads, computers, movies, television…and actually talking and dining with each other. And, more, a good number of parents are deciding to homeschool their children. How long this will last depends upon the children’s abilities to keep the same practices after they mature and have families. There is always hope where there is God.
Than you Marilyn for your insights and illustrations. It is encouraging to hear the views of readers of “like precious faith!” We must keep the faith and be found faithful.
Good message, Pastor Nash. It’s way past time those in the pulpits of our nation address the root causes of our national moral degradation. The Bible speaks CLEARLY and PRECISELY on marriage, divorce, finances , how family members treat each other, as well as every other aspect of life. Has ANYONE ever heard a sermon about divorce? As with every other controversial subject, we don’t want to talk about those things….someone may get offended (i.e. the church’s wealthiest members) and said pastor would lose his job. Imagine that! Then there’s the topics of husbands loving their wives, wives respecting their husbands, children honoring their parents, who should be or should not be leaders in the church, homosexuality, finances, etc. When did you last hear any of it from the pulpit ? Well, pulpit or not, just back to the pure Bible on a daily basis would do wonders for each of us, especially the MEN of this nation. MEN are the intended heads of families, but if they abdicate, then women are eager to assume the role and we frequently get it wrong if we don’t have the “covering” we need. I am 71 years old , a wife of one husband for almost 54 years, a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and retired RN, and I have watched the deterioation of families first, and now our nation first-hand, sorry to say. I believe they are both symptoms, not the cause of anything. Symptoms of Godlessness….unbelief, if you will. Do we end up like Sodom and Gommorah? Maybe.
Sarah, thanks for your comments which are right on! The greatest reason the pulpits are silent on many issues is “FEAR.” It is sad, but it is true.
Pastor Steve, you are so correct! What a sad irony that the very thing our founders escaped in Europe and other places is now the sinister “norm” of our country! As Europe turns away from socialism because it didn’t work, we have the Left/Democrats embracing it like it is the new “cure” for all ills. It makes me sick to my core what they are doing to my beloved country.
My husband and I have served as a sponsor couple for marriage preparation for engaged couples in our church. We started 14 years ago, and at that time, we met with starry-eyed couples living at home or in their own apartment or home. Fast-forward to today, and the couples we meet with are living together, and that is the new norm. Either or both may have been married and divorced, and usually there is a least one child from a previous marriage or relationship, or there is the “your’s, mine, our’s” combo of children. We have actually had to change the instrument we use to address these big changes in how we approach their preparation. It’s sad, to realize how quickly our culture has declined in these short 14 years. But it fits with your premise above, and supports it perfectly.
I pray a lot for our nation, that God will not turn his back on us as we, as a nation, have done to Him.
Sunny, this decay has happened slowly but consistently over recent decades. The Family has been the prime target of the Communist, the progressive, the political correct movement and the devil himself. We have lost ground and I’m not sure we can regain it short of a nation-wide revival! Thanks for your comments.
pastor steve nash: you are spot on…we have lost ground because people have become more occupied with things than freedom and personal welfare…in the meantime the enemy was busy filling their pipelines with those who have taken over…in other words they worked while we slept…
Thanks for the comments Mychal. You know these truths better than anyone.