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BUT....IT IS TOO LATE
IT IS TOO LATE
April 19, 2003
Pastor David
**********
This article does not examine the details of wrong choices which lead to disaster. It does not offer answers to a life of wrong choices. It is designed to get parents to come to grips with the sure promise of defeat if they do not begin to live in obedience to God's call on their lives. It is a call to faith, for we cannot live obediently unless we trust God to live in us and through us.
**********
WHICH DIRECTION?
The years move by at an ever increasing pace and our children move with them. Hopefully you are pleased with the direction your children have moved. If not with every move they made, at least with the general direction.
Parents are not always responsible for the directions in life which their children take. God was not responsible for Adam's wrong choice. However, there are far more parents failing to lead their children in the rigth direction than otherwise. For those parents who have faced the truth when it seems to be TOO LATE, there is forgiveness and the redemptive work of God. But this paper is aimed at getting parents to make right choices for their children's sake today, so that they will not say in the days ahead,
BUT....
IT IS TOO LATE NOW.
Unhappily, there are far too many parents who have far too many regrets, disappointments, heartaches. Not only have the children not moved in the right direction, the parents did not lead and guide them in the right direction. Mom and Dad now wish that they had done things differently,
BUT......
IT IS TOO LATE NOW.
THE SPIRIT OF CHILDHOOD...
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Let me give you a little scenario of how it might have gone in the past...or how it might be going now...or how it might go in the future, if you don't change direction now. We will call ourselves the Okneos, a young couple just starting out. I take the name from the Greek word which means delay.
REMEMBER, THIS IS NOT MY TESTIMONY, DON'T LET IT BE YOURS.
LITTLE BY LITTLE
When we were a young couple, we started right, at least that is what we thought at the time. We both found jobs which would allow us to pursue the "good life." We were then able to get credit cards, a loan for a new house, a couple of cars and some of the toys that go with a modern family. We went to church but went less and less. Even when we were going regularly, we were not involved that much with "the program." We just had too much to do and too little time to do it. Besides, who needs a group Bible study during the week or midweek service for prayer and sharing?
Of course Sundays were the only time we had for visiting family and friends (if our jobs didn't keep us busy), so we would miss services occasionally. With work and extra activities, Sunday School was just too early...after all, it was the only day we had to sleep-in late. Anyway...Sunday School is for kids, we are adults now, we have real life responsibilities to deal with. And besides, have your ever had to listen to some of these people lead a Sunday School Class?
It wasn't long before the Okneos were not making it to very many services at all.
A BUNDLE OF...DIAPERS
Then the unthinkable, she got pregnant. How did that that happen, we asked. We had taken all of the precautions, oh well, these things happen. It's not like we can't deal with it, after all, this is the day of space travel and modern conveniences.
Of course she quit her job because of the baby. Like for about 6 weeks. Maternity leave is a wonderful thing. It allows a woman to be a whole woman. You know... work... have kids... go back to work... leave the kids with someone else... you know... The Modern Western Woman. None of this old fashioned Bible Christianity needs to interfere with a full life. After all, the baby is too young to actually know who is watching "IT" anyway. Besides, we are doing this for the good of the baby.
OFF TO SCHOOL
Time flies by. Now the baby is not being cared for by baby sitters or day care centers, IT is in Kindergarten and First Grade, and IT has been joined by a Sibling. We feel better now, we have our child where the law requires. But it seems like we lost something along the way, but we are not sure what.
Ever so often They come home with some ideas or words or actions which were not taught at home and they are contrary to the Christian values we were exposed to as children, but... "not-to-worry." THEIR behavior is kind of cute, though embarrassing. THEY will "grow" out of it. No one seems to be bothered by this behavior anyway. Or could it be that the we have moved further away from our roots? Is it worth making a scene over such incidental things? Naw. How bad can it be, the teachers are not concerned and we have friends with more offensive children. Besides, who wants to over-react?
SECOND AND THIRD GRADE
By the Second Grade the we are fairly acclamated to the prevailing world-view, which is definitely not Christian. It bothers us some, but after all, everyone has the right to their own beliefs and we should not be shoving Christianity down anyone's throat, and who am I to tell someone else that they are wrong and who is to say that they aren't right and who is to say that there really is only one way and..... and on it goes.
Yes, we do see that our children have started to move further away from our standards in the last two years, and they obviously are being more impacted by the people at school than they are by us, but, surely, we shouldn't be alarmed? But we were concerned. Our family was not moving in the direction we had hoped. We were not becoming the family we had envisioned. But we had given away so much in such a short time, it looked like we would not be able to get it back. Surely it was not TOO LATE?
We were more in need of two incomes now than we were at the beginning. WHERE DID OUR MONEY GO, ANYWAY? We had also allowed some things into our lives which we didn't want, but we didn't know how to get rid of them. We didn't realize how much we had hardened our hearts to God and His call on our lives
END OF ELEMENTARY YEARS
By the time our babies were in the 3rd and 4th grade THEY were so ensnared by friends and philosophy that we couldn't change if we wanted to. The curriculum, which we had thought was innocuous had become a cauldron of poison to our values and ethics. We had thought that we could make a difference through the parent and teacher meetings, but it eventually became clear that we had separate agendas and ours didn't count. Our children were being drawn further and further away from us. They were no longer ours, but the State's.
JUNIOR HIGH YEARS
During the Jr. Hi years, our children were bombarded with profanity, promiscuity, and perversion in the class and out of it. They began to think, talk and act according to the way they had been shaped by everyone else around them, rather than by us. They had become so peer oriented that whatever values we tried to hold onto had been scoffed right out of their lives. Family and church were pretty much a laugh... and the joke was on mom and dad.
Sr. High YEARS
As if it wasn't bad enough that their morals had been twisted, they also entered into a state of rebellion. It seemed that all was lost. Though there were some kids who had weathered the Jr. Hi. years, they had not yet faced the pending storms of Sr. Hi. They had already passed through the most formative years of their lives and now they were being confirmed in their rebellion. They were not only exposed to all manner of sin, they were practicing it and searching for more sin to experiment with. Their sins not only broke all ties with their Christian faith in the past, it set their course for years to come. A course from which there would probably be no return.
ON THEIR OWN
Then, all of a sudden they were gone from our influence, either married, living away from home, at college, in the military. We lost them. But we didn't lose them this year, or last year or five years ago. We lost them when we did not take them home and raise them. Their lives are a mess, and we made it. We would like to change things to the way they should have been,
BUT.........
IT IS TOO LATE.
And as it turns out, we didn't end up with the worldly wealth or the social prestige or even with each other. We not only lost our children, we lost ourselves. It looks like we may even lose our souls. I know I can make peace with God and He will save our souls, at least my soul. But when it comes to making my life count fully for Him, IT IS TOO LATE. And when it comes to making my marriage count for Him, IT IS TOO LATE. And when it comes to saving my children....... God have mercy, IT IS TOO...
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