Every sane person in the United States has been shocked and saddened by the recent series of shootings in our schools.  From Arkansas to Oregon, Tennessee to California, the pictures have been repeated over and over on our television screens.  Rescue squads work feverishly to save some adult or child's life who has been senselessly gunned down by another child.  Parents rush to schools to frantically search for their children.  Whole communities grieve over young people cut down before they can experience life.  It is tragic beyond words.

  But I want to take your mind to another scene.  There is no tragedy here.  I was recently at an awards ceremony for about a hundred young people who attend our local middle school.  These young people were not brandishing firearms.  They were not rioting.  They were being honored for their achievement and citizenship.  There to cheer them on were a couple hundred parents, grandparents, relatives and friends.  You should have seen the look of joy on the faces of these young people as they each went up to the stage to receive their respective awards for citizenship and high scholastic achievement.  I thought to myself, "this is the culmination of several years of work and parental involvement.  The future is hopeful and positive for these young people." 
 I also noticed something else while there.  As I was looking around in the crowd I began to notice faces that I knew.  These are the same ones who would come for Choir and Band recitals, parent/teacher conferences, and other school events.  I had seen many of these faces before.  They had made a difference in the lives of their children because they had taken the time to be there for them. 

   I understand that kids can sometimes turn out bad in spite of the best efforts of their parents.  There's something else that I know.  Those children who learn the love of God from their parents will be far less likely to end up going bad than those who do not.  The Bible tells us,  "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).  A number of years ago a juvenile judge made the statement that in all his years on the bench he had never seen a young man or woman before his bench in trouble who had regular spiritual training.

   If you are a parent, you need to be concerned about the spiritual welfare of your children.  Take some advice from Moses concerning training our children.  "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).
 
 

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