By Kenneth D. Sils
It’s the hottest topic of the year. All over the television — over talk radio — in the newspapers and magazines — everywhere you look, people concede the possibility of a major international crisis occurring due to the calendar changing to the year 2000 and our computers are not ready. We have been warned not to be flying at midnight this New Year’s Eve. Some are storing up can goods and bottled water. What is going to happen? People really have no idea, but many are quite concerned. I’m not sure what to expect.
A couple of weeks ago, my family was out doing some shopping and in a causal conversation, I asked my oldest son if he was Y2K ready. He said, “I don’t know.” Then, I proceeded to ask him if he knew what I meant when I asked him if he was Y2K ready and he emphatically said, “Yes.” Puzzled by his certainty, I asked, “What is Y2K?’ He said, “Your two kids!” Of course, Sandra and I just about lost it, but when I regained my composure, I realized that was a good answer in which we should ponder.
Most parents in our generation are not Y2K ready. This generation, in many ways, has lost its composure when it comes to raising their two kids! So many children are taking “depressive” type of prescription drugs. Many kids are so rude, filled with “attitude,” failing in school work and exhibiting major deficiencies of character and the blame should, more often than not, be laid right at the doorsteps of their parents.
“What’s going on?” is the cry heard across the land. The answer to this question is actually quite simple. Modern parents, for the most part, have ceased implementing God’s instruction manual, the Bible, concerning marriage and child raising. The result has been just as many divorces in our land as marriages and the children are reaping the bitter price of their sin. Also, many American parents are abdicating their responsibility of child raising to impersonal daycare centers or to modern philosophy manuals of enlightened humanists which propose training our kids in “tolerance and understanding” rather than a submissive respect for authority which can only be implemented with that good “ole fashioned Bible based” woodshed discipline. The wise preacher states, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). Foolish children are usually the product of parents who foolishly forsake the right ways of God to ensure their lifestyle is perceived “politically correct” for the approval of the “enlightened” ignorant masses. Yes, there is plenty of foolishness to go around today!
Christians, let’s not be foolish. Principles for proper child raising originate in Holy Scripture and our consistent application of God’s Word towards our children will drive away their foolishness. This generation is filled with failures. Our children don’t have to participate! Our light must shine in our lives and in our homes, so our “two kids” can be the wise and mature men and women they ought to.