Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Esphesians 6:4  ESV

Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

I’ve often heard people say that kids don’t come with an instruction manual.  But actually, this is not true.  You see, the bible instructs us in how we should live.  It tells us how we should behave as single people, as married people, as employees, as parents, as siblings, and as children.  The bible instructs us on how to conduct ourselves in all areas of our lives.  If everyone were reading the bible and doing what it said, we would be living in heaven on earth.  But, we know that the very first people that God put on earth sinned shortly after they got here and so here we are.

There has been a cycle of sinful behavior with humans that dates back to Adam and Eve.  Some of us think that if we are raising our children to not drink, use drugs or commit any other crimes then we are doing pretty good.  If you are raising a child not to do those things, then congratulations, you have a good start.  However, on K-Love radio station the other day they had asked a question on their Facebook page and the responses shocked me.  They asked if people felt that children should be forced to go to church?  I was flabbergasted when 85% of those who responded, said no.  Seriously?  Now the reason these people said no is that they feared that their children would later rebel and stop going to church.  Now, I understand this fear and I have seen this happen.  But I have always seen the person turn back to God.  If you believe the bible, the bible tells us in our scripture this morning that it is the parent’s responsibility to teach a child what to do and that even when the child is old they will not depart from it.  It’s all about the foundation.  Did you build your house on a big pile of sand?  No, you brought in good solid dirt and poured concrete or build a good solid frame foundation.

The same holds true with children.  I look back at my family and I realize that my mom and my brother in law broke the cycle in their families.  You see my dad’s mother was a devout Christian who attended church every time the doors were  open.  She was very active in her church and if you knew her then you knew that she loved the Lord and put Him first in her life.  My mom’s parents  did not attend church that I ever knew of but my mom went to church with her mother-in-law and also became a devout Christian that loved the Lord and put Him first in her life.  My brother-in-law grew up Catholic and attended church sporadically while growing up, but at the encouraging of my mom began going to church with her.  He has gone on to serve as a deacon in the church, as a Gideon, and now is an ordained pastor.  They broke the cycle.

I once heard an evangelist say that he had a drug problem.  He said that he was drug to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.  And like me, he thanked God that his mother did this.  Growing up in our home, there was never a question as to whether or not we would go to church.  If you weren’t running a fever or throwing up, you were in church.  I thank God every day for this, because now I am the same way.  I love attending my church.  I love the protection and support that I feel within my church family.  I love having a pastor to visit when I am sick or going through a hard time and pray with me.  I love knowing that I am surrounded by prayer warriors that are interceding when I am going through difficult times.

Also, I can honestly say that attending church kept me on the straight and narrow as a teenager.  I feared my earthly father and my heavenly father and now I can say that I never even tried marijuana much less any other illegal substance.  I was usually the one in my group of friends that talked the others out of doing stupid pranks that could have landed them in jail if they got caught.

For those parents that say they will keep their children home for church and let them decide, I have a few questions.  Did you do that with school?  Did you tell your children, that they could wait till they were older and decide if they want an education?

If my mom had done that with me, I would have had no education, no way of supporting myself and my life would be a mess.  But my mom made me go to school and she made me go to church.  I am thankful that she did both

My mom broke the cycle in her family as did my brother-in-law.  Ironically both did this because of mother-in-laws that loved the Lord.

Even if you don’t have young children at home, someone today is watching you and needing you to lead them to the Lord.  Are you up for the task?  Are you wiling to do what it takes to break the cycle?