Cultivating Children, Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

September 16, 2017

This is a continuation of a new series entitled, Cultivating Children, with this being Part 2.

In Part 1 the importance of what God stressed from the beginning was covered in how this instruction from God is one of the most important things that mankind should apply to their lives in regards to bringing children into the world. It truly is. It's awesome. There is really no greater responsibility a human being can be given.

I'm just going to read it again in Genesis 2:15—And the Eternal took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, again, in God's creation for mankind to live life and to dwell, and it says here, to dress it and to keep it. So simple. So basic. So it was brought up how that this word "dress" has to do with a word that we have coined more so because it actually carries more of the meaning of what it's saying anyway in Hebrew, but it's "to cultivate," "to cultivate and to maintain." There is work to be done. Again, we need to understand the most important kind of work that people could be given is that of children, children under your responsibility. What greater thing as a responsibility could be given to human beings when you understand God's plan for mankind, when you understand what our purpose of existence is in the first place? And so it's far, far greater than people in the world can grasp and comprehend. It truly is, but we should strive to grasp and comprehend what God is giving us to understand in this matter.

Again, it was mentioned here "to dress" here in the Hebrew has to do with the meaning of "cultivate as to foster growth; to prove by labor." It takes work. That's the point. It doesn't just happen. I think about Sabbath services and all the things I have seen since 1969 and being in God's Church at that particular time and all the people, all the families I've known and all the children I've known through time, which has been many through time here, and I think of all those things that I have seen and witnessed in how some of these kinds of things are addressed in people's lives.

I think of the Sabbath service environment itself. There is so much we can train and teach and give and pass along. At some point, candidly, teens begin to become set. So they make choices. And the reality is that no matter how good a job you may do, if you're really striving and working hard at it, it doesn't mean they're going to choose this way of life, but it's still your responsibility to do what you can, to work hard, to give what you can. So that mean's work.

I think of the Sabbath service environment and I think of all the people I've known through time who have come to Sabbath services, and it's almost as though sometimes because a child is present, that somehow they're going to pick up on things and learn lessons and hear things in sermons. It doesn't happen that way. It does not work that way at all. What the parents teach, what the parents help them in is far, far greater because there are things they cannot begin to comprehend, but that's where it begins, the training, the teaching, the labor, the work. It takes work! And that's the point of what I'm saying. It takes a lot of work.

So "to cultivate, as to foster growth, to improve by labor." So it was covered how this definition includes the meaning of "to encourage," or "promote." You know, even in things to do with the Church and Sabbath services, to encourage, to work with, to make a Sabbath special, things that you can do especially as is geared toward God and that takes forethought, it takes planning. It doesn't just happen. If people go from Sabbath to Sabbath and it's like every other day of the week and nothing is different when it comes to things about God, then nothing happens. No change takes place. Nothing is planted in the mind that will benefit or profit them so they can make a better decision later on, if that chance and potential is there. Sadly, sometimes the world has such pulls and the environment that people live in, and especially once some enter their teen years. I'll just tell you, it's a battle because of hormones and things that begin to happen in the body and in the mind and the pulls of the world. So you've got your hands full, especially in this world. Thankfully, we're getting ready for another one.

But again, it starts with the Church. "To encourage or promote the development of a child; indeed to encourage, promote, further, stimulate, advance, nurture, strengthen, enrich." Those things don't just happen, but so many in the world are just allowed to exist and grow up and don't have a whole lot of guidance. It's like children are sent off to schools and the school is to take the responsibility of a parent. Sick world.

Then there were other things we discussed in Part 1 as well, in the rest of that particular section, because we spent some time on discussing some of this. Then we went on to discuss something that is so sick and unseemly that far too many Israelites participated in when they offered their own children to Baal, and specifically to Molech when offering them in the fire as sacrifice. I remember some of the first times I started reading some of those kinds of scriptures and the first time I began to preach about some of those things within a sermon context, and I still never get over it, thinking, "How on earth could any human being do something like that?" To take your own flesh and blood, your own child, and to think that somehow you're appeasing some kind of gods, or whatever it is, and you're going to put them in the fire to be burnt. That boggles the mind, how the human mind could think that way. I think of Judah and Israel both, both participated in those kinds of things, even as we read last week. So Judah was guilty as well.

Even to see that Solomon aided—aided—in that kind of activity. It boggles the mind. It really does. So of course that was an atrocious act on a physical plane and we can be appalled by such a thing and the thinking of such a thing, as God was, but the comparison was drawn of what this means on a spiritual plane to any who do not fully and actively engage in cultivating and keeping their children in the manner that God desires they do. So a great responsibility before God. That should not be lost on us because God has given us so much as His people.

I want to go back here and look at Jeremiah 32 again, because this is where we ended in Part 1, just to review a little of this again, to stress some of what was being said here. Jeremiah 32:30—It says, For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before Me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD, because they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't do what He said. They went their own way, did their own thing, and worshipped their own gods. Yet it was God Almighty that brought them out of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness and desired to give them so much in a better life, and blessings in life, and to richly bless them in life in every way, but they didn't listen.

Verse 33—And they have turned their back on Me, and not their face. We can read something like that and say, "How can anyone turn their back on God?" And yet if we don't listen that's exactly what we do. If we don't apply the things in life that we know we should be, that's what we do! …though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, the things that God did in working with Israel and working with Judah, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

And so parents, we can read through some of these things (we're going to go through some Proverbs after a while here as well) and the things that God has to say to people, to His people, reflects things of a parent and how a parent should work with children in many regards. There are things to learn here. So even in this, talking about rising up early and teaching them, you know. It takes work and it starts at the very beginning of a day, and it doesn't end until that day is over. But I'll tell you what, today it's not that way in society. They can be off in their room playing their whatever games they're playing and just be lost in oblivion to those things and that makes parent's happy because they're up there or wherever, doing all this stuff and, "They're not under my hair and I don't have to mess with dealing with things of life. I don't have to work with them and teach them and instruct them, and whatever." So they're just let go and that becomes like a babysitter and if they're not doing that it's TV or whatever it might be endlessly, whatever they want to do, or on their computer without guidance. Well, anyway, we should all be able to see what's happening in this world around us and be appalled at what's taking place because especially when we come into God's Church that needs to change and we need to work on those things to make sure such things change and that we don't do what the world is doing because what the world is doing is wrong! It's sick! It's producing what you see out here; it really is.

They have turned their back on Me and not their face, though I taught them rising up early teaching them. Yet they have not listened to receive instruction. Instead they set their abominations in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it. I have to hold myself back here a little bit, I'll just be honest with you, because these things rile me up when I see that people do not apply what God gives them and what God gives them in His Church. Okay? Over a year ago I began to talk about devices in Sabbath services, before Sabbath services, and after Sabbath services and there is no reason on earth! So what is brought into God's house? Now, this isn't God's house, but we are God's house, each and every one of us. We have God's spirit dwelling within us. We are a part of the temple and this is an environment that is special to God when we come together in fellowship with one another and with God and we strive to honor God and Jesus Christ.

A lot of that has to do with how we rear children because if we allow wrong things to come in when we have been forewarned not to do so it's exactly like this on a spiritual plane. There is no difference! There really isn't. So it says, "Instead they set their abominations in the house, which is called by My name." Does God care? Does God care what children do, children of God's people, and whether parents know or see or work with them in those matters? "To defile it."

And they built the high places of Baal, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom. Gehenna. It carries quite a reputation throughout scripture and God uses it in a very powerful way to talk about judgment. Gehenna. …in the valley of the son of Hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I did not command them, neither did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Verse 36—And now, therefore, says the Eternal, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof you say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by a famine, and by pestilence. Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries… You know, it's amazing what Judah and Israel had to go through and the example that was set there on a very physical plane. All those ten tribes, I guess. All the ten tribes taken up into Europe, in captivity, never to be known, never to know their identity again, losing their identity through time because they turned their back on God's Sabbath and God's holy days. The Jewish people later had to be taken in Babylon later, into captivity for seventy years, as a whole and they were able to continue on. They were able to know things about themselves, who they are, the Jews to this day, because they at least kept the Sabbath, even though they polluted it. They kept that timing and the holy days. But again, God had them go into captivity.

I think what this world is getting ready to go through again and what it takes to bring people to humility. Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, because this goes way past the time of Israel. This is talking about what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about. This is talking about the Great White Throne and the Feast of Tabernacles period, the Millennium, which is coming, of what God is going to do and what has to take place with mankind before He can begin to have their attention and work with them in life, before they'll start listening.

I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God: and I will give them one heart, and one way, where does that start? Church of God. That's where the process starts. That's the process. Once we're baptized, we have the impregnation of God's spirit, then we begin to change, we begin to make choices about change and God works with us to give us one heart, one mind, one way that's in unity and oneness with Him. It's a process that takes a lot of time. The battles that we have are in the resistance that we give as human beings because we tend to resist God and tend to resist, I should say, His way. So there's that battle and we recognize that and realize that has to change and I have to fight against that and do what God says and what God gives.

So it begins in the Church. …I will give them one heart and one way that they might fear Me forever, for their good, and for their children after them. What does that mean? Well, it means that these kinds of things need to be taught to the children. One heart. One way. God's way. We have to teach about God's way. We have to work, have to labor at that, continually reinforcing God's way, God's Sabbath, the importance of obeying and being obedient to God and what that means in practical terms in your own life. You have so many ways – I don't want to get ahead of the sermon here, but there's so many things, even like in the book of Proverbs that make that so clear, of things that people are to engage in and to be involved in. So it begins in the Church. That's what God wants us to grasp and comprehend even more so as we move forward.

So at this point, a great place to learn more about this process of cultivating children is exactly what I referred to here in the book of Proverbs. Let's turn over there. It's good to focus on things that God has given His people, His children, that should also teach parents how they should strive to work with their children.

Proverbs 1:1—The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. Isn't that amazing how we talked about that in Part 1? He was given all this, awesome things in his mind to know, to see, to write. Yet he turned away from it. He turned his back on it. Incredible! He was given so much, such riches and wisdom. …to know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice… Now, already here there are so many things. With a child these things don't just happen, you have to work. I think of children who go to school, or whatever it might be, different friends and things come up and the kinds of things that happen in human life when people have conflict. That happens with children because they interact with other children and so things come up, opportunities to teach the right way to deal with a matter, the right way to think about other people, how to handle different kinds of situations. And you can never stop that. It's ongoing… ongoing!

The influences of other people that they have on children, your children, you have to work with that. You have to work with that as far as what's on TV, what's in music, because those things affect the mind. The kind of music you allow your children to listen to! People don't even know sometimes what they listen to, let alone what they're watching on the internet, and so forth. So those things go into the mind. They affect the way you think. I know because I lived it and I had to come out of it. I know how music affected my mind in my teen years, how much I was involved in that and the kind of impact that had in my thinking to where it was a major battle in leaving and turning from those things and getting rid of that putrid stuff, some of the stuff, the messages that are there, out there because they affect your thinking.

Anyone who thinks that that doesn't affect your thinking, that's a powerful influence. You are sadly mistaken. "Oh, they're just words." I think of some of the garbage that some people listen to today. Sometimes it's in movies and so forth and you hear this background, of the kind of cursing and stuff that takes place, putrid language that's used. That's all they hear. It reminds me of camp. People couldn't talk three or four words without, you know, excrement coming out of their mouth, sadly, because that's what they grow up with. That's what they learn. That's how they think. So they listen to this crap day in and day out and if you don't think that affects the mind? If any child listens to that kind of thing, I'll tell you what, you've got major problems on your hand. You need to know what they hear. You need to be involved more if that is the case.

I get riled up about these things. I'm sorry, but I can't help it, okay? Because I know the impact. I've seen it over and over again for such a long time in God's Church, and some who are just so totally oblivious to it, who excuse and justify why certain things are okay. And I think, give me a break! Give me a break! I hope you learn before long because otherwise you've given them over to Molech as far as I'm concerned. You might as well just hand them on over.

Well, just what it says here, justice. …to receive the instruction of wisdom, of justice. You know, that has to be taught! What is just? What is right? I don't know why that popped in my mind but I think of some of these games where teams will play each other and they want to give trophies to everybody because nobody loses. We're not even going to keep score.  Anyway, I'm sorry. I think that's not reality of life. That's not what life is like. Life has a lot of hard knocks. In the Millennium life is still going to have a lot of hard knocks. It's not easy just because the world is better, just because God's way is the only way that's taught. We still have rotten human nature, selfish human nature. People are still going to be motivated by selfishness and they're still going to say wrong things to each other. They're still going to do wrong things at times. They're going to get into each other's hair. They're going to rub each other the wrong way, and they're going to have arguments, because that's the way human nature is, because we're so selfish. That's what happens.

What opportunities to teach children when things happen, even sometimes by your own wrong, bad example. I have seen this so often where a parent does not tell their child, "I'm sorry. I was wrong in what I said. I was wrong in how I dealt with that." The worst thing a parent can do is to not admit and tell their child when they have done wrong, when they have been in error, when they have sinned, when they've made a mistake that the child is fully aware of. So the child learns to hide things, to lie, to want to project an image of something that isn't real. That's how we are where we are. We started somewhere. We have opportunities to teach what is right and just. You have to teach that! Where are they going to learn it otherwise? Where is a child going to learn it if we don't have those kinds of conversations in life when they're going through something?

…and judgment, and equity. That which is fair and impartial, teaching them how to judge things and when they've judged something wrong to let them know. You're not looking at this right. This is not the right way of thinking. That's not the way to judge a matter. That's not the right kind of decision to make. Here is where you're wrong. Here is what should be done. Here's why. We have to teach, have to work. And you know what? That takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of work.

Going on it says here, to give subtlety to the simple, simple minded, in other words not yet matured and experienced in the realities of living life. What can we expect? Now, this is for adults as well. That's what it's addressing. And that's even worse. But a child, we should understand that a child growing up, they're just children and they don't have experiences of life and they don't understand the kinds of things that take place and what human nature is like, let alone their own human nature or the human nature and how to deal with other people. Because you're dealing with human nature, and so how do you deal with those things? Opportunities to teach.

…to the young man knowledge and discretion. So it's a matter of teaching, "to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man/young woman knowledge and discretion." How do you teach discretion? How do you teach respect? How do you teach different things in life? Well, when they are in error say, "Hey, let's talk about this." Now, too often what happens is it never gets done because, well, that's not easy to do. So if it's not easy to do sometimes we just don't tend to do it.

A wise person will hear, and will increase in learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Again, these traits need to be taught and developed in the home. That's where it begins as much as possible.

Verse 7—The fear of the Eternal is the beginning of knowledge. That's beautiful! "The fear of the Eternal is the beginning of knowledge" because if people don't grasp or don't have a right thinking toward God then the kind of knowledge they're going to attain and the kind of understanding that just won't be there is going to be a natural course of selfish human nature and the way of the world. You don't want that. You don't want that for yourself; you don't want that for your child. So there are opportunities to teach these kinds of things. God comes first. How often rearing a child can you teach God comes first? What's the right thing here?

"The fear of the Eternal is the beginning of knowledge." Again, it has to be taught at home, doesn't it? …but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother. Now, for us we understand what this means on a spiritual plane, having to do with God Almighty and having to do with the Church, it says, who is the mother of us all, in that respect. So there are those things that we learn on a spiritual plane that we're to take heed to in life, to desire, to implement into our lives those things we hear, those things we learn, those things that God gives us the opportunity to learn through teaching us.

Again, that same mind then in how a parent works with their children and teaching them this importance. When I think of this, "to hear the instruction of a father, and do not forsake the law of your mother," I think about two parents that need to always be in unity and agreement because I have seen so often where one will run to one or to the other parent because they're not in agreement and they're not in agreement in how things are done. So if they can't get what they want they’ll go to the other. Because children, we all have this nature and it starts very young. So you have to be very careful of that. You have to be very careful of that. A child needs to know that if one parent says something the other backs it up 100%...100% without exception! They need to know if they run off to the other one, "What did your mom say?" "What did your dad say?" "Did you talk to them yet? What did they say? Okay, that's the answer.” That's exactly what's going to take place.

That little jewel right there is a jewel because I have seen it so abused and what happens to a child when they get by with such things, when they do such things is so unhealthy. We're talking about a mind being able to be developed and a desire for that mind to have greater potential to receive God's way of life whenever that time comes. The more one does to try to help in those things, the better. Again, please understand that you can do everything under the sun perfect and a child still has choices to make. Okay? That goes without saying. But we need to recognize there is a great area there that needs to be worked upon and changed as far as how things are done, to do things better. We can always learn that in life.

Then there are many forms of peer pressure. I think of how you have to deal with this as parents and working with those things. It's an ongoing battle. It's an ongoing battle just in clothes and styles and music and on and on it goes, but you have to take control, be involved. So there are so many forms of peer pressure where young people try to get others to join in with them in their activities that are not right. So you have to deal with that on a regular basis, things that happen in schools that blow your mind now days. The kind of school I went to are not like schools today and the environment that's there, night and day. Night and day. If there was someone that had any cigarettes, you know, that's about the worst that could happen. Today they're loaded cigarettes, a different kind of weed in the middle. It's very common in schools. Drugs. The things they do with drugs. These little circles of people and what they do and what they try to get others to do. Alcohol, and so forth.

So it can be difficult for a young person to stand out, to be different. Tell you what, you have to work with someone to teach them. Can you do it perfectly? No. A lot of times we look back and think, "Oh, man, I could have done that better." So sometimes we learn a little too late, but we need to strive to learn what we can while we can.

So it can be difficult for a young person to stand out in confidence, being different, because in God's Church we're different. We really are, to understand the importance of being an example themselves no matter what anybody else around them does. That's tough. That's hard.

So these things can start to have an effect on a person, again, like I said in simple matters like dress, what one wears. I think of style changes and how those things take place. Sometimes you might hit a certain period of time where everything's good, and then other times it starts changing and goes crazy. You have to work with them. I've always felt sorry for young girls because there's where styles change that sometimes are so atrocious and so sick. I think sometimes of even how parents dress their little kid, little children in skimpy things that they think, "It's so cute!" I think there are so many perverts out there in this world today that's the last thing you want to do. You need to be careful. You need to be careful. You begin to teach a child at a very young age as to what you let them wear. You need to enforce certain rules and certain restrictions and so forth.

We have this happen in the Church from time to time where different ones they want to hike up the dress higher and higher. And you think, "Don't you know what you're doing?" And sadly, sometimes they do know. But there are things going on in the mind and they think this is the way it has to be. Why do you want to be that way? Why do you want to do something like that? Well, a parent has to be the one to help teach and to work with, and sometimes to put teeth in something that is not comfortable doing. It takes time. You may have a battle on your hands for a long time, but what are you going to do? Let the world have them and not try to fight the fight? Just give in because it's the world, the way of the world and we don't want them to be different? We want them to be able to have other friends and to get along and so we don't want them to stand out and be different because that's just too hard on them. What are you teaching the child?

I'm so thankful we're almost at the end of this because we're going to go into a new age now where that's not going to be the problem like it has been in times past, see. But if you can understand that, just in that one area alone, please understand this permeates many things in a child's life. That's just one easy one to begin to notice, to begin to look at.

It states it again here, verse 7. Anyway, we're going to jump on down to verse 15. I think of sometimes even how peer pressure, how cruel sometimes people can be to others and if you don't join in with them in picking on someone else or making fun of someone else or passing around gossip about someone else and they can learn cruel things, some at a very young age. Where did they get that? Anyway, you have to work with them because a lot of times things will come home. Other things will happen and you have to get involved and find out, but there's an opportunity to teach then. There are certain things you don't participate in and here's a reason why. Anyway, there's no end. There really is no end to the time and effort that we need to see as parents. Far greater responsibility than what I ever knew. I didn't know the things that I know today as God's minister, teaching the things that I do and the things that God has given and what He's preparing us for, things that I knew to what we knew at that particular time. But I see these now as so much more important and why God wants us to grasp and comprehend these things because of where we're headed. It’s so much more responsibility than what we've ever grasped or understood in the Church.

Verse 15—My son, do not walk in the way with them… So in these verses that we're looking at a person is being encouraged not to follow after such people that try to pull away and do things that aren't right, whatever that might be. It might be something as simple as gossiping or talking about someone else and picking on someone else because you're in a certain group and all of a sudden they start laughing and you join in with that. Do you think those kinds of things don't happen? Sick, what can happen in the human mind.

My son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path. For their feet run to evil and are quick to shed blood. So we can look at this in a very physical way as sometimes that's the only way we tend to think of it. But again here, it can be things having to do with as simple as what comes out of the mouth, how people treat each other; opportunities to teach children then how you treat someone the right way. You're going to run across occasions where you're going to know that your child didn't treat another child the right way. They didn't say things the right way. They didn't do the right thing, whatever it might be. It might be at a very young age, you know, where they try to take a chunk out of another child's arm. You have to deal with that. You have to start at a very young age and teach them there are right things in life and there are wrong things in life. It never stops. It never stops.

I remember in both occasions when our children reached a certain age and praying to God I thanked Him for the time and opportunity I had to work with them, and then I very candidly stated, "They're Yours," because they're God's anyway, if you understand what I'm saying. But how we think about it and what we do, your desire is to be able to give them over to God, that hopefully they'll make the right choices for God's way of life. That doesn't always happen because of human nature. Anyway, you've got to strive to do your part.

So it goes on to talk about some of this: So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain; who take away the life of the owners thereof. You know, sometimes just by going through a certain proverb here and opportunities to teach, to think about different things that can be taught and how to do it. But again, a willingness to take advantage of others. There are going to be opportunities in life at times because of things to do with maybe finances or things to do with buying or selling something, or whatever it might be, or working for someone else, and there are opportunities to teach here about human nature and about how people oftentimes take advantage of others.

It’s just like teaching a child how to work. That's one of the biggest problems in society in the world today because so often young people aren't taught how to work and how to act on a job, that when you work there are certain things you're to do. That's why giving chores and having responsibilities at a very young age and learning how to do those things and teaching children how to work, that’s a big part of life. And there comes that time then if you don't do your job, if you try to slough off on your job… I think of young people today. You see certain things out here sometimes when they're working. Well, they're not working; that's a lot of the problem. They're lazy. They don't want to work, you know, and they don't want to put in the time. You know, if you work for eight hours for an employer you should work for eight hours for an employer, unless you have time off for a certain amount of time for lunch or a certain amount of time for a break, and that's it because it's human nature to take advantage of others. That's what this is talking about, different ways that the human mind is greedy: “Get for myself what I want. I want it easy. I don't want to have to put in that full amount of time,” or whatever. Opportunities to teach young people how to work.

You know, if young people aren't given chores, if they don't have responsibilities of things they should do, you've just given them over, given them over to the world. They need to learn how to work, to be productive and when they don't do it they need to learn that there's a kind of penalty that goes with it in life, whatever that might be; certain things taken away of things you want to have that you can't have because you didn't do your job. Things have repercussions in life and there are so many ways, so many things, and you have to sometimes try many different things to work with children.

Wisdom cries outside; she utters her voice in the streets. I can't convey this like I would like in many ways. It's just a matter that it's in the mind or it isn't. What does this mean, "Wisdom cries outside; she utters her voice in the streets." It means there are many opportunities to teach. There are many opportunities to teach children on a daily basis even about God and right principles about God's way of life. It doesn't mean you've got to go look up a scripture and say, "Well, it says over here in James…" I'm not talking about that because I've known people who have done that. That doesn't get through, you know. There are ways to teach principles and ways to teach things because they're right, because the judgment is right, and sometimes then, obviously, yes, to bring God into the picture. "Wisdom cries outside; she utters her voice in the streets." So many opportunities to teach rather than them taking off to a room, being in a room by themselves with no restrictions. They can have wide access to the internet. You need to take control of some things in life.

If you don't know how to put parental controls in everything you're wrong; you're sinning as a parent. The sin is upon you! You think that just because your child might be 6 or 7 or 8 or 9, let alone when they get older, that they can't go into various things and find out things quickly? Then you're sadly mistaken! I've known of very young people who've got addicted to things on the internet. Very young because their parents were oblivious to what was going on and didn't make sure that they had control of those devices. You don't just give free reign in this kind of a world, to the kind of filth and the garbage that's out there. If you do, shame on you! You just gave them over to Molech because you're allowing perversion and sickness to come into the mind that will become their battle worse and worse in life. The mind is a precious thing. I can't help but think about the days of Noah, and because people lived so long, the kind of sick, perverted, corrupted minds they had by that time in so many cases. I think today how that process is so speeded up. And a young mind; you can corrupt things in the mind. You want to fight against that. You want to strive to love your children, to protect them from the evil of this world – more today than any other time in human history.

It goes on to say in verse 24—I have called you, and you refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no one regards it. Do you make sure? Do you work to make sure that your child listens? If you say something, do you follow through? Because if you don't you're putting something, a way of thinking in the mind. You're programming the mind in the wrong way. You have responsibilities for what's programmed up here. That's a part of the process, truly. It's a part of training, rearing, fostering the right thing in a child's mind, in their life, and if they do not listen then there are absolute consequences; something's going to happen. "I don't care how much you whine and cry. Sorry, you knew what the answer was to that. You knew what you shouldn't have done." Isn't that the way life is? If we don't teach them when they're young how are they going to deal with reality when they're older in a sound mind and sound thinking? Because this world is pretty evil…very evil.

It says, But you have neglected all My counsel, and would not receive my correction. Well, again, God has ways of working with mankind and ways especially of working with those whom He calls, to correct, and we as parents need to make sure that we follow through. It's a part of love. Who is it that doesn't ever need to be corrected in life? You know, some people just don't like to correct their own children. It's not a fun thing, but you've got a responsibility to do it, to do it well. There are many things you can do to help a child learn there are consequences for not doing what I'm told.

Proverbs 3:1—My son, do not forget My law; but let your heart keep My commandments: for length of days, long life, and peace shall they add to you. So where does this begin when working with, when cultivating God's way of life in your children? It should be at a very young age. Children should learn, should know something as basic as the 10 Commandments and yet how many today in God's Church really know the 10 Commandments? To me there is no excuse for a child not to know the 10 Commandments, even at a very young age. You know, they can learn at a very young age what the 10 Commandments are, short form. Been there, done that. Okay? It's very easy. And what about the holy days? Can they tell you every holy day and in order? Can they tell you a little bit about what each one means? Because, you know, they should know.

So it's one thing to teach them about life. It's one thing to guard them and help them to be guarded, in that respect, in dealing with various things around them as they grow up, and strive to teach them soundness of mind and balance and right judgment, and not let them get by with wrong judgment, but to show them when they're wrong and why that's wrong and why that's not healthy and how certain things should be done and how people should be treated. Just a matter of respect, to show respect to others. I think of the south. I think of young people in the south. You know, they learn to say, "Yes, Ma'am," and "Yes Sir." Now, I'm not saying that everybody has to learn that, but I respect that because it's just a part of that society and a part of that part of the world and they learn growing up to respect their elders. Something's going on in the mind and how they react to them and how they respond to them. They do respond; it's just a natural thing. It's a beautiful thing as far as I'm concerned.

So you can teach respect because I know of far too many young people who are not respectful. I've known of many young people who are very disrespectful to myself and my wife, far too many. And sadly, sometimes I've known that to exist because I know the parents didn't have that respect either. Thankfully the Church has been cleansed in great part, but I'm not naïve enough to think that that doesn't still exist. Why is that important? Because it's learned at home. Matters of respect towards others is learned at home. A young person will learn quickly from a parent what kind of respect they show towards others, how they talk about others, how they think about others. Because you know what? Parents talk to each other, and a child over here, they're going to hear what that parent is saying to the other parent and they're going to learn, see, in the mind to do the same kind of thing, and even toward the same people that the parents might be talking about. See? Awesome lessons.

So I think about that, about opportunities to teach. And of all things to teach, what is more important than teaching a child about God? Not just bringing them to Sabbath services, because that doesn't cut it. That doesn't even get close to a parent’s responsibility in God's Church. Truly doesn't. You have things you can do at home that you must do at home, that you should do at home that are your responsibility. See? So young people, hope you're listening today because I know you're going to start learning the 10 Commandments. I know you're going to start learning the holy days. And if I were to ask you at the Feast of Tabernacles, which I probably won't do this year, but at some other holy day or when I'm visiting in an area, “How are you doing on those 10 Commandments?” Everyone I ask should be able to tell me. Everyone who doesn't, shame on the parent. Shame, shame, shame on the parent. Do we think a child just learns by osmosis God and God's way of life and God's truths? Do we not grasp and comprehend as adults and the process we've had to go through in our lives that we have to teach and we have to teach about God and we have to teach about some of the most basic things? 10 Commandments are simple! Frankly, all the books of the Bible are pretty simple beginning to end.

But today technology has made things too easy sometimes, see, too easy, but there's so much we can learn. There is so much that we can teach. So they should understand Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread that follow, and all the way through to the Last Great Day depending on their age to come to understand a little bit about what that day is about and what it meant even if it's a very physical thing. "Well, that's when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt." That's right. When was the last time you ever read a story like that to your child or have you ever?

Verse 3—Do not let mercy and truth forsake you. Even matters of mercy, they have to be taught. They're not in the mind. They're not in a child's mind, let alone an adult’s mind. There are traits and things that we learn as God's people that He teaches us because they're from Him. The more we learn those things then we can have opportunity to teach those things to others, see? Awesome! Awesome, what you can pass along, but you have to think about it and you have to plan it and you have to work at it. It takes a lot of work. So I'm just giving some guidelines, just like in the previous sermon series here. It's an overview of some things that should get to the crux of the matter in everything, in essence, without going into every little detail. I don't have to do that because wisdom cries in the streets! There are things out here, but we have to think about them and the opportunities we have then to participate and be a part of it.

Do not let mercy and truth forsake you. Truth. How are they going to learn truth if they don't even know the 10 Commandments? What does that mean? Is there a great God out there that tells us how we should live our lives? "Yeah, He tells us to keep the Sabbath." Well, what are the rest of those? What are the rest of those Commandments? What about those last six? What are they and how does that affect your life? What does that mean?

Bind them about your neck; write them on the table of your heart. How can a child ever do that if they're not taught? How can it become something that they can grow in with time and begin to choose for themselves? "Ah, that's how I want to live." So shall you find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Again, I can go into that. I can make a sermon out of that, of what that means just about God's way of life and a person learning it and how that this comes back in favor just by living a right life, by how people treat one another, how you work on a job, etcetera.

Verse 5—Trust in the Eternal with all your heart; and do not lean unto your own understanding. Wow! There's a great one to teach children because what have you done most of your life? Lean to your own understanding! And too many of us, in many cases, that's much of our battle, isn't it? We lean to our own understanding, the way I see it. Well, there is an opportunity to teach a child whenever certain things happen, "Don't lean to your own understanding. There's a different way. There's a better way." To teach them what human nature is like, and that's going to be your tendency. To teach them, "Hey, that's what I did before God called me and it's been much of my battle ever since. I don't want to lean to my own way. I want to do whatever it is God's way."

What does God have to say about it? I want to be pleasing to God. I want to honor God. When I go to the Feast of Tabernacles what I wear and what I put on is a matter of my attitude and my mind toward God. That's why I do it! Everything I wrote about that, and made an announcement, it's because of the mind toward God, to honor God, especially on those Sabbath days! Why would we do anything different? Why would we let our children do anything different? See? Why would we have them approach and come before God's presence any other way? Because we do in a way that is magnified over other times because that's what should be in the mind and how one thinks then when they're doing that.

Trust in the Eternal with all your heart and do not lean to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths, things you have to teach children, to acknowledge God. Why you do the things you do. Why you make certain choices. Why we do certain things the way we do at Sabbath services. Why that I've given instruction about no cell phones and so forth before or after services, and especially not during services. And on and on it goes and to teach them why that's a good thing, why it's proper. "It's a punishment. That's hard! It's hard. That's a hard thing to ask someone to do." Really?

Verse 6—In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. God must be first in our thinking, why we do the things we do. Do not be wise in your own eyes. That's the way we tend to be as human beings and children will do the same thing. So there are good opportunities at times to teach them. Fear the Eternal, and depart from evil. Children should be taught that there is a God and He sees everything you do. He knows everything you say. You don't get by with diddly-squat ever. Don't kid yourselves. Be sure to know your sins will find you out young and old alike. I have seen this so many times. I've been so thankful for that so many times in life, even with my own children. If you pray accordingly God will see to it that something that happens in secret doesn't stay there. You become aware of it and then you can work with it and deal with it. That should be something you want to do because you want to work with your child so they don't get by with things because that's going to be the proclivity sometimes, especially when they're in their teen years. It happens when they're younger, but I'll tell you what, when they get older you've got your hands full. In this world? You've got a full time job. You may go to work, but you probably should be home. No, I'm just kidding, but it's a full time job.

Verse 9—Honor the Eternal with your substance. Hmmm…opportunities to teach. I wonder what about? I wonder how. How do we do something like that? We're told to Honor the Eternal with our substance and with the firstfruits of all your increase. Should be pretty simple. But a parent that never teaches their children this? Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. You can teach by maybe certain jobs and allowance because of certain things, then when they do that well they have a certain amount coming in. Maybe it's something simple like that and then to learn how to tithe on that, but to have something that they can focus upon and see how things work and when you don't do your chores and so forth that you may have other punishment as well, but this is going to be taken back, this amount is going to be taken back because you didn't do it on this day, or whatever it might be. They can learn lessons that way. Those are powerful ways to teach, they really are, because negligence of not doing it all, you've lost the game anyway. You've lost the task, or whatever.

So opportunities to teach. "You have something in your possession. Guess what?" You know when you can start teaching that? Pretty young. Pretty young. Save back 1st Tithe. "So what did you get this week?" $2.00. "Okay. So how much of that is God's?" "Okay, get the coins out, put it in the envelope," whatever, put it somewhere. "This goes to God. And what else? A second one. Another 20¢, where does that go? For you to go to the Feast, for you to have extra money for the Feast, spend money, to have extra things you can do." And you can multiply that many times over and say, "And then whatever you're able to do in that amount we'll see to it you get more, even above and beyond at the Feast. But if you don't do it…?" Anyway. Their choice.

Holy day offerings. When do you begin to teach a child about holy day offerings? Put their name on it. Let them write their name on it, whatever. Make sure that it's legible, depending on their age. It'll get recorded. They'll get something in the mail. At least in the U.S. it's that way. We have it set up in other areas and that's mainly because of the tax system and so forth, so we have that automatic system there. But it can go out, to receive something like that in the mail, and this is what they gave in that year; so much in tithing, and so much in holy day offerings.

They're a part. They're a part. They're participating together in something. They're a part with us and they can have that feeling, that sense, that knowing. And to not do that? To not make certain that they're learning that and doing that? Shame. It's a shame, because what greater opportunities to teach about God and a relationship we're to have with God, and that we're to give of our substance, that God has given us everything we have in life. Everything you have in life God has given you. Every breath of air you have. Every day you get to live. You don't worry about that until you get to a point in life where you realize I've been given several chances now above and beyond to continue on. See, that's deeply embedded in my mind in ways that it's not in many of your minds because until you live certain things it's not as real to you. The older you get sometimes in life the more real it becomes because when you're young and a teenager it doesn't mean as much. That's far, far away and far away from your thinking.

But what a great opportunity to teach children about God's creation, things that are out here. Everything that's out there that we're able to enjoy in life, it's because God put it there. And if we don't have those kinds of conversations in life and what He desires is to receive a part back? Why? So He can have a system whereby that we're able to be taught. That's what God provides. And then, as well, to be used in other areas too in time, in God's time, to bring others along wherever and whenever that might be.

So there are many opportunities to teach reasons why and how things are done the way they are and what we're a part of because if they don't feel a part of something, if they're not taught to be a part of something then coming to services is like a punishment. It's like having to be here for two hours and when is he going to quit? I'll just go longer then. Anyway.

Proverbs 4. I want to finish that, where it said that. Honor the Eternal with your substance and with the firstfruits of all your increase. So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine. Anyway, opportunities to teach how God works in our lives when we're younger and our participation in that, that we might be able to teach them in some of this as well. So again, teach children these things.

Proverbs 3:13—The person who finds wisdom is happy, and the one who gets understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than of fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you could desire are not to be compared to her. So how does a child in any fashion or form begin to develop a mind that thinks about God, a mind that knows things about God, or stories, if you will, even that can endear them to it to where they begin to see a value in what they're taught? Now, sometimes that value doesn't come until later on in life, but the beginning of teaching it starts at a younger age, of things that are implanted in the mind.

So do they know stories in the Bible? Do they learn it? Do they have when they're young, before they can even read, have stories read to them that they will enjoy? Because God gave stories in scripture that are awesome! And you can have them put in some of the simplest of forms. I remember we used to go out and we used to get some of these books. You can get them in book stores or whatever, Bible book stores. It doesn't matter. You have to be careful the kind of ones that get into the New Testament, but there are the ones in the Old Testament, those stories, stories about Samson, stories about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and on and on it goes. They like to hear them, and they like to hear them over and over when they're young. They love it when a parent is taking that time to teach and those things are embedded in the mind and they know those stories.

I ought to have my wife up here telling us some of these things, of what her dad used to teach. He'd have Bible studies with them. She is who she is today because of what God inspired that man to teach his own daughter at a very young age growing up. And some of the things that he taught, and some of the stories he went into are the ones that are more pertinent to us, to her, and to things that have happened in our lives than she ever knew at that time. But she had those stories. Incredible. Incredible. Because he loved his children, highly respected because of the kind of man that he was, and, well, I could go on and on. But he was a father the way a father should be. It takes work and dedication. Back then because of where we were, because of what we believed in the present truth and what we thought about certain parts of Europe that were going to conquer this country, he took his kids out to a track, a school, to run, to learn how to run – with a message in it because of what's coming. He focused on where they were and what was going to come on this world. He felt that basically it'd probably be good by the age twenty, the age of accountability, you better make the right decision and you better be in God's Church. Everything was focused on that, of them becoming a part of God's Church. Also I think he believed that they probably should have some German there. He's going to be surprised to learn that one of his grandchildren, that's what happened. But that's what he worked for because the Church is everything. This way of life, where we are in the world, the end of an age that's coming, and what he wanted to teach his children. So he had Bible studies every Friday night, long ones. Long ones. So don't feel you're going to overdo it, just do it. Just do it. Stories that can be embedded in the mind, that helped to make her who she is. Incredible!

Truly, it is an incredible example of what it's like to want a young person to learn about God. When they're six and on up, to work and to teach, to have studies, to read stories, to have them read stories. I think of the Bible story books. Those are awesome! Those are awesome! And if there are young people who have never read those, have never had them read to them, what on earth are we doing here? What on earth are we doing in teaching about the God whom we serve? What are we doing? Maybe they should go and read and come back with a certain report, or whatever, write something up about what they've learned. Read a certain amount, whatever it might be. How much do we want this for them? How much do we want God's way for them? And if we don't do it, it doesn't happen. I'll guarantee you that. It just doesn't happen.

Proverbs 4:1—Listen, you children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know, to learn. So, to know. So again here, it's about learning, it's about giving attention to things, and where can you begin to teach some of those things to a child, to pay attention, to pay attention in Sabbath services? Not to be out here in some la-la land doing something else in the thinking. Where do you start with that? You can start at a pretty young age teaching a child about paying attention. I could go on and on about different things you could do to enhance Sabbath services. If it's never been done it's going to be perhaps a little bit of a battle at the beginning; maybe a big one. I don't know. I really don't care because if no effort is made then where is the child? What can be done to help at this point? Well, I'd want to strive to do all I could. So listen, children, to the instruction of a father, and give attention. That's how we begin to learn, right here in Sabbath services and the holy days and the Feast of Tabernacles. They have to be taught to pay attention. It doesn't just happen.

I'll tell you what, children today have it really easy compared to what it was in Worldwide. Children learned how to take notes very early on. They learned how to sit still in chairs, even at a very, very young age. My wife could tell you some stories about them and some bumps on the back of the head if you don't pay total attention, and I'm not suggesting you should go out and do that. I'm just saying that's what happened many, many years ago.

Anyway, I'm talking about a long time ago. But even fifteen, twenty, thirty years ago, the way it was in God's Church was more of a thing, that's just what you do. You learn how to take notes. Now we have these tablets where we can just go to Bible verses, and that's fine, but I still personally like to take some notes. I still do it when I hear Johnny or Wayne, or someone giving a sermon. I write down some notes because there are certain highlights of things and just the scriptures themselves. Sometimes I circle them because I want to go back to them and look at certain things. It sparked something in my mind when I heard it and I want to go back to it later. But if I don't do anything, I'm here and then I'm gone. I guess that's permissible – not necessarily the best. I don't agree with it, but I'm not saying everyone has to do it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Sometimes it's good to capture some of those older ways because they're good, because it's participation and teaching things at a very young age about respect and attention, and on and on it goes.

So I think of the Bible stories. Awesome books, the way they're written. Even the pictures. I get a charge out of those old pictures in the Bible story book. We used to have the old books themselves, and Basil Wolverton himself is the one who did a lot of the cartoons. Well, they're not cartoons there, but some of those pictures of things that as a child or a young person there, even in God's Church a young person takes a look at some of those and thinks, "That's horrible!" But anyway, he had a way of grasping something in a little picture like that. The only thing I knew the name for was MAD Magazine. He was the one that did a lot of those cartoons and stuff. Anyway, he came in the Church later on and did some of those things then for the book that was there.

Anyway, simple things to teach, to teach children the importance of paying attention at Sabbath services. Incredible. You have to work at that. It doesn't just happen, to listen. It depends on the age too, where a child is. You have to work with those different things. Maybe they're a certain young age or whatever, just to have a few scriptures written down and maybe sometimes as some have done, they look at the parents, what they wrote down as far as the scripture's concerned. Then they look over there because they get in the habit of doing something, not just sitting around waiting and shuffling around and can't wait until services are over, or whatever, but to participate. That's how you start learning some of those kinds of things in life.

Proverbs 4:3—For I was my father's son, tender (delicate) and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said to me, Let your heart hold on to my words: keep my commandments, and live. So again here, I don't have time to go into a lot of this, but so much taught just in the Proverbs themselves, and on a spiritual plane and on a physical plane. It goes on to say here, repeating over and over here, and get wisdom, get understanding, and do not forget it; neither turn away from the words of my mouth. So those things that a parent has to do in working with children. It takes work.

I’m trying to decide here how much of some of this to go into or not to go into. One of the most powerful means of teaching a child, a young person about God, again, is to teach them respect for the environment of Sabbath services. From before services begin, while they're in session, and after. Parents need to be aware of children. I think especially at the Feast of Tabernacles because I hope that we are really striving to do these things at that point in time, because it's not just a free for all. There's a matter of learning respect for the property we're on, for the management that's there, for the people who see us, the example we set. So we don't want any kind of a free for all. I've known too many parents, and still some to this day, they don't know where their children are and what they're doing. You don't have that luxury. You brought them in the world, you must work with them. You can't just be over here visiting and be oblivious to where your children are. It's your responsibility, not someone else's. So we need to be careful in those kinds of things and make sure that we're doing our part in leading and guiding and teaching respect and teaching matters of order, teaching decorum, whatever it might be, teaching people how to respect other people's property, whatever it might be. We have those responsibilities as parents.

Anyway. So we have the environment. This is an incredible environment to work with your children. I think of Mr. Neff, Leroy Neff. He was our pastor in Houston before Mr. Armstrong brought him into headquarters to be an evangelist and to be the Treasurer of the Church at that time. But I remember when he gave the subject matter of teaching, rearing children, and so forth, that he gave this example of someone in the Church that he respected. And if I remember all the story, he had several children and they were so well behaved every Sabbath. Mr. Neff asked him one time about what did he do, to have children acting like this, being like this in services always. He said, "Well, I found that if you work with them six days of the week, on the Sabbath they give me rest." Something like that. I was paraphrasing it, but that's what it is. It takes work. So by the time he'd come to services they had a certain behavior and a certain respect they had towards him, toward what he told them, and how they were to conduct themselves and they did it. Anyway, the story will never leave me, but a good example.

But, finally let's read part of Proverbs 6.

I do want to mention this again because this is the last time. Cell phones – never. Young people do not need them in services, period, before or after. There's no purpose. Absolutely no purpose. Leave them at home. Leave them in the car, whatever it is. I know some who do that. That's good. And various kinds of games that are played and so forth during services? It’s not teaching them. So, again, there is some balance in this. Don't judge others. There are certain situations depending on how young a child might be. I’m talking about 3, 4, 5, there are little things, whatever. Again, each parent has to work with their child, or how they feel that they can work with them at a particular point in time, but when they get to a certain age, when they're able to go to school and on up, they don't need to be playing games in church, or to be doing it before and after services. They're not learning about mixing with others. Whatever it might be. Some of those kinds of things are learned. It takes work and because we're smaller today it makes that job even harder for you. But don't excuse things away: "Well, we can't do it today. It can't be done today." Bull.

Proverbs 6:20—My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake the law of your mother. God hits this pretty strong, reminding us again some very basic things, whether it be in a church environment that He teaches us on a spiritual plane about the importance of things that are given within God's Church or those things that are given from Him in His word and how we're to live by those things that are given, to support those things, to respect those things, to honor those things, to speak of those things in positive ways.

One of the most damaging things that a parent can do is to speak before their children in disagreement with things that the Church has given and does. I have witnessed this for ever since I've been in the Church, where parents have done this openly. Not just with other adults sometimes in the Church, but in supposed conversations between a husband and a wife, or whatever, and children hear it. Amazing. Hopefully there's none of that left, but there may be.

So keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake the law of your mother. Continually tie them together upon your heart and tie them about your neck. In other words, as wearing these things as a way of life always, to be respected, upheld, honored. Again, we learn these things in God's Church. He teaches us value. He teaches us what to embrace. But again, these things can be taught in a physical way to children, it really can, but you have to think about it. What does this mean? What does this mean in your life? What does this mean in the Sabbath service environment?

Wherever you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you are awake, it shall talk with you. What's that about? For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. I can give a whole sermon on those last couple of verses. Little things to do, little things not to do, but I don't have to do that. It's up to us to think about our own lives and our own situations and matters that come up every day, every day in our lives if we have children, of things we can do, how we can do them, of how to teach some of these traits and characteristics and qualities and things about God.

"The commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life." That one alone. Just that last one alone. You know, you have incredible opportunity in teaching a child reality of life and about love. What does God tell us? What does God tell us if we are without correction, if He didn't chasten us? And why does He do it? Why does He correct us? Because He loves us. He cares about what happens to us. That's a matter of love. Now, if that isn't done then where is the care? Where is the love? If the love is there we're going to do it. If the care is there we're going to do it. That's the point. We'll involve ourselves in doing the things we need to do. "Reproofs of instruction are the way of life." What a great thing to teach a child in the first place. Even that when things of correction take place. Use that as an opportunity to teach, "Hey, you're going to learn that this is the way life is. This isn't going to stop just when you're young and at home. This is going to continue on, on your job. And how are you going to respond to that? Are you going to respond to your boss, your employer like you are to me right now? How far do you think that's going to get you?” On and on it goes. To your teachers, whatever, “How are you going to respond to them?”

Learn that correction is not an enemy. I'll tell you what. I have known too many people leave God's Church because they just didn't grasp this: "Reproofs of instruction are a way of life." We by nature are selfish. You think that can be taught to a child? "Why are you doing that? What was your motive?" Do you see what's working here? Can you teach them about selfishness? Absolutely. They're not going to grasp it like you do on a spiritual plane, but you can start teaching things on a physical plane. And if, of all the things I've just gone through, this one here, if that could be taught to a child how blessed you would be as a parent. How blessed that child will be if they can learn that, to expect this as a part of your life because it's never going to stop. It's never going to stop because our nature is selfish, our nature is inward. God who loves us wants us to be different in how we think toward others, in how we treat others. So we have this battle. Can you teach a child that, that you've got this battle that goes on inside? Absolutely. You have opportunities to begin to teach some of those things. "You're struggling right now. You're battling inside right now. You don't like what I've told you. You don't like your punishment. Do you see where that's coming from? Do you see a little bit of yourself here? Go look in the mirror. Go look at that face. Where is that coming from? Doesn't look so good does it?"

Most all the people who have ever left never fully got this. Those who battle and battle to the end and keep battling understand you have a battle against your nature till you are changed. So teach a child that God made us this way for a purpose. I think of one of the big sermons at the Feast this year we're going to build upon what we've talked about in times past. To me it's such an incredible marvel and something God's revealed to us in such a powerful way, the very reason why He made us the way we are. You can teach this to a child and they can begin to learn. Awesome!

Well, we'll stop there, but that one thing alone, what a blessing to learn such a thing at a young age. Parents, be diligent, work hard to cultivate your children, especially into God's way of life.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1