Church Children
Writer Author Sylvia Huffnagle
Christian Article
:
Christian Living
- Fiction No
Children in Christian homes today have a lot to deal with. They have the godly influence of their parents and their church, but they also have three other very powerful influences in their life. They have school peers and teachers. They have TV, movies, books, magazines, radio, and music. They have their friends. All of these are putting input into the child and the child is not mature enough to distinguish between the truth and the error, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong. Oh yes, sometimes they can. Sometimes it easy--a no brainer, but the devil is subtle and lies can be subtle. Children have a lot of regard for what they are told. They haven’t learned yet that discernment is necessary and they haven’t learned how to discern. Often they don’t have the knowledge and certainly not the experience to discern. Therefore they can truly want to be a Christian, want to have a relationship with God, but they may not know that they know that they know that a certain thing is right or a certain thing is wrong. They haven’t yet got the witness in the Spirit about right and wrong. In many cases they assume certain things are okay because their church friends are doing it. Often they don’t even think about it because that just isn’t something that is on too many people’s minds today. This will help explain why the Christian kids are not living a Christian life.
Before the TV era, when teachers were usually church people themselves and God was allowed in school--even taught in school, the children had a powerful witness in God’s behalf at school. Godly parents were their most powerful influence. Their playmates were usually church goers. If they weren’t church goers the kids soon learned that they weren’t taught and avoided them for the most part. No media was prevalent in their lives to wrongly influence them. All they had to deal with was their own sinful and rebellious heart. But today, the devil has more witnesses than the church and the children are in a true dilemma.
I, as a parent and Sunday school teacher, taught the truth to the children expecting them to “go with it”, but I was mistaken. There are too many voices. The children are still feeling their way along--sort of groping in the dark. Godly influences are outnumbered.
This age of society has given the children more opportunity, even implied that it is their right to make up their own minds about many things that used to be “a given’ in the Christian family and their minds are not developed enough to make a God-guided decision. Now it is true that if a child is truly repentant of his or her ways and is diligently seeking God and His ways, God will be able to guide them into good choices early. But we are dealing here with average Christian kids.
Kids that have decided that they want Jesus to be their Savior. They want God to be their Father. (Note that Father used to mean authority as well as provider. Now it means provider much more than authority.) They have made up their mind that they want to go to heaven, but they are not sure who is telling the true facts and they are not sure how far they want to go with religion. They see Christians who are very casual about the Word. They see those who are Christian about some things, but not other things and then they see those who seem extreme. They don’t yet know what life is and what it is not. The world says life is finding happiness and/or having fun and/or experiencing a wide range of experiences.
The only way to be a powerful witness for God in their lives is to live it. Parents and churches must be doers of the Word. This does not only mean try to do right and go to church. It means seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness with your whole heart, put on the full armor of God, and discern what will edify others and what will hurt their weak consciences.
Sylvia Huffnagle
Editor's Comment:
About the Writer Author
State:
Pennsylvania
Country:
United States
Email:
huffnagl@verizon.net
Website:
www.straightpaths.truepath.com/about4.html
Profile:
Click here!
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