How Did That Happen?
Proverbs 29:15 (Amplified Bible)
15The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left undisciplined brings his mother to shame.
My daughter and I have conversations that often are shocking and mind boggling to me. I guess because the nature of our relationship, I look for mothers and fathers alike to be as pro-active in the life of their children as I am. But when my daughter shares with me some information about people she knows and friends that she has encountered along the way, my response is always where are the parents, especially where is the mom in the case of little girls, 12,13 and 14 sneaking out and having random sex, or dating boys that are involved in gangs, and dealing drugs and any number of other things, the hairs on my neck stand up. My eyes fill with tears and my heart ultimately breaks for the child or children that are being left to themselves while parents live their lives.
How disappointing it is to see parents so consumed with getting theirs that children are left home alone to explore sex with the opposite sex and the same gender as well. It is sad when boys and girl alike have no sense of family because of absentee parenting that they go out and join gangs or commit crimes with friends just to have a sense of family and belonging. It is heart wrenching to hear little girls talk about the only love they have known from a man is from a little boy who doesn’t even know the definition of love let alone know how to effectively express it. We as parents some times miss the boat entirely, because we are so consumed with ministry, work, education, and socializing or for some it is just plain selfishness and disinterest in our children that are children are being swallowed up by immorality, sexual promiscuity, crime, drugs and alcohol and we are clueless because we have our own stuff going on. When do we stop being the center focus and make that child an element of importance. Why are we not caring for the gift, and talents that God has entrusted us with? Then when we get the phone call our child is in jail, in the hospital or caught in a compromising situation we immediately want to ask, “How did that happen?” It happened because we are not taking the job of parenting seriously. We are not seeing it as a ministry. We don’t see that we should be honoring God through the vehicle of parenting, our kids are tossed and turned out and in most cases we don’t even know it is happening right underneath our noses.
Now is the time to refocus and make our children a priority, a ministry a source of pride. It is time for us to become active in our role as parents and become accessible to them, and they to us. It is time to put the “me” agenda to the side for the sake and benefit of the children that need us to actual raise them and not just live in the house with them and yell and scream at them just because our day was out of balance. Love, guidance, discipline, care, tenderness and mercy should be what our children see in us and receive from us not just when we can schedule it in but when they need it most, that is everyday. If we refuse to take our God given mandate then we should not dare to say when our child does something shocking “how did that happen?” The answer is simple it is because they were left to themselves!
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