by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book; Love is….) Books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.patlambchristianauthor.com

Train up a child….

Some Things Never Change

There are those who say, “Things have never been this bad in our country before!”  I beg to differ.  We read in history about the Civil War, slavery, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and more.  Also, if we read the Old Testament, we read about babies being sacrificed by being thrown into the fire and many more terrible things.  We don’t like to think about such things, but truth is truth.  There have always been those who are evil and those who have fought for what is right.

What about now?  We have many things happening in our country that go against what many consider to be right.  The answer is the same.  The Bible never changes and neither do its principles.  How does this affect the raising of children?

We need to teach the Bible to children.  As I ponder what to write about raising children, I am convinced more and more that the answers are in the Bible.  Just because society may bring new challenges, we don’t need to change our way of raising children.  Yes, we may need to watch them more closely.  We may need to emphasize the Bible more to them.  We may need to hug them a little tighter.  We may need to make a greater effort to get them in church, but God’s principles never change.  The answer is still the same.

The Bible is based on love.  In fact, we are told that “Love never fails” in I Corinthians 13.  Love, however, is not self-satisfaction.  It goes much deeper.  It means giving up one’s own wants for the benefit of another.  Like, on the other hand, are the things that give us pleasure.  The Bible doesn’t tell us that we have to “like” what others do.  It does, however, tell us that we are to “love” everyone.  

If we can teach our children the difference between “love” and “like”, we have gone a long way in helping them navigate the world in which we live.  The Bible makes the difference very clear.  There are many times when we need to forget what we “like” and concentrate on loving our children and others.