Train Up A Child?
We had an interesting discussion at Small Group Thursday night where we got on the topic of why many Christian young adults go astray after leaving the house. The prodigal is a pervasive pattern as to almost be the norm.
As the one who works with teens, I was asked why I thought this was so common. Here is my take even though I haven't really researched it quantitatively and qualitatively officially but I have a lot of anecdotal evidence.
I think these kids take God and grace for granted. Like it is a given. All us to this to one degree or another but it is truly a tragedy when a Christian teen decides to do a dirty dance with the devil. The naiveté is downright bizarre and awful. It is like watching a moth fly into the flame, as fast as possible.
I work with a lot of non-Christian kids and many of them have been on the receiving end of sin's consequences, often through no fault of their own (besides being sinners in general, like all of humanity). One thing they really don't do is romance that harsh realities of life. They may still be caught in destructive patterns but rarely do they approach the train of sin so flippantly, almost defiantly asking the train to run them over, by walking or running on the rails of rebellion.
We have some hard questions to ask in regards to this reality but something is quite wrong with how we raised children when so many of them get decapitated spiritually, just when they should be wise enough to get off the tracks.
Comments