Head Start

Have you ever run a race with someone who decided to give you a head start?

On one hand the thought of being given an advantage to help you get ahead seemed encouraging. On further reflection, you might have figured out that being given a head start meant you were facing an opponent so tough that the only way to compensate for your disadvantage was for the stronger opponent to give you an advantage, or a head start.

When you think of "headstart" you might also think of the early childhood educational program that was designed to help very young children make a strong entry into the educational arena.

Sadly, if we look around today, far too many parents are giving children a head start -- in the wrong direction. We are no longer raising children--teaching, guiding, pouring wisdom into them, and helping them understand the distinctions between adults and children. Instead, some of us simply see our children as adorable live playthings that we can dress up and parade around.

We have toddlers walking around with their pants on the ground, not because of a soggy diaper or ill-fitted pullup, but because someone thought it would be cute or cool. We have young children really thinking that the world exists to serve them and that they do not have to respect any form of authority, and so they don't. We have children watching adult-oriented movies full of violence, horror and other themes inappropriate for young impressionable minds and wonder why some children have trouble sleeping at night and trouble relating with others during the day....

We speak things into our children's lives like, "Ooh, he's going to be a heartbreaker!" And, then when he grows up to be the cause of much heartbreak for others, the source of his own heartache and a major contributor to his parent's headaches, we wonder what happened.

Some of us buy everything the merchandisers put out for children with no regard to whether the items are age-appropriate, especially those that have inappropriate words and messages, some of which are even placed on certain parts of the clothing that draw attention to body parts.

We're giving our kids a head start, but in which direction?

God's Word tells us to "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." It deliberately doesn't say to train them up in the way they want to go. If children are allowed to dictate how they are raised, they will be eating cotton candy for breakfast every day, cake and ice cream for lunch, and overly-buttered popcorn for dinner every night--with rotten teeth and poor mental and physical development to show for it.

Let's stop trying to be buddies with our children and get back to raising them, especially in "the fear and admonition of the Lord." That doesn't mean that they we cut off all their fun, but it does mean we would, for example, stop giving in to parental peer pressure to let our children have every electronic trinket the market cranks out, instead allowing their own imaginations to develop. I've seen some children work unimaginable wonders and find hours of enjoyment making things out of an empty box!

Raising our children God's way provides them with an orientation and sense of order to the chaotic world around them, a world that can sometimes be quite disorienting. Remember, God is the author and giver of life, so who would be better to turn to for guidance about how to shape the young lives He has blessed us with?

Let's start praying for and with our kids and sow seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control in what we model before them. That will give them a headstart that will set them on course for victory!

BNcouraged!

Rev. Karen