I am not sure about your neighborhood, friends and fellow church members, but the families around us have become wicked. They are nice as neighbors go, but the immorality, divorce, children born out of wedlock and the number of individuals just living together is astounding. What has happened to our societies?!

The storm threatens our very own home and children. Our marriages find no strength or encouragemet from our surroundings any longer. Our society has strategically been torn away from its biblical moorings and only waiting for the next storm to strike it.

How much damage do we have to see and experience before we recognize that we have a collosal problem on our hands? How many children must be murdered through abortion? How young are we going to allow our children to commit fornication? How many divorces? How many couples are going to live together before we realize that the church has erred in her way? We even have professing Christians in our neighborhood where the parents tolerate their daughter's boyfriend to live with them!

The fact is that it is not God's Word that has failed us, but we have failed to live according to it. This is the problem. Families no longer have biblical instruction. If they have received it, most reject it. Many so-called Christians are not living by Christian standards even though they would claim the name of Christ. God wants to change all of this. Already, much evil has come upon families because of their sin. Families need to repent and come back to God. Many of these same people might say, "What shall we repent from?" In the following pages, we hope to identify a number of these standards that we have broken. At certain points we will even share why these ways are wrong or unbiblical. Most importantly, we will show you how the scriptures outline for us the path back to God through biblical instruction.

What troubles me personally is to discover how slow I have been in discovering these principles. My wife and I have seen that wherever we have been 'soft' on God's standards whether it be as parents or in the way we have cared for our children, that they have suffered. Diseases, worries, fears, consequences of disobedience have crept in where if we had rightly instructed them, our children would not have suffered.

Our desire is for you to bypass us. We are trying to pave a highway for you when we have travelled a little known path where we often got off track. Since we have turned around, we now see where we would have been if it was not for God's grace. He gave us a little light and we followed it.

What about you? Do you really love your children as you say? If so, you have no choice but to follow on and ask God to examine your life and change it where needed.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalms 139:23,24, NASB).

In case you are not very convinced, allow me to give you one short illustration on self-control.

Do you give into your child's whining or temper tantrum? Then you can be sure that your child will lack self-control. In fact, you have been trainng them how to lack that control! When they do not get their way, they will use all sorts of mean-spirited faces, sounds, words and hitting to get it. How will they adjust in the society when they grow up? They will simply not outgrow what they have been trained to do.

Have you fudged on keeping what standards you know is right?
Your child will catch you looking at some questionable scenes. He will then understand that what he does in this area of his life does not matter. He will also be caught looking at pornography, toy with sexual experiences and destroy the chances of having a beautiful marriage. He will never learn what it is to love his wife. Do we need any more marriages like this? What woman volunteers to marry a man that will not really love her?

In the end, the way a child behaves reveals a lot about parental beliefs and their training. It is now time to change. We have lost too much time. Our children are suffering.

We should prepare ourselves for a radical change. We really need to be open to change. Remember, to whatever degree in whatever area that we hold back biblical instruction and modeling, our children will suffer. We will suffer too for God will hold us accountable upon the way we have neglected to train our children according to His holy Word.

Throughout these pages, we will introduce a concept which will be real new to most parents. We will challenge you to think about training your children as if you are discipling them. The problem that arises is that we don't know what discipling means either! We will go back to the roots and share how this works out. Check out the Family for many articles on many aspects of raising children.

The best place to start is to humble oneself in prayer and begin to regularly read God's word. You must know what you teach. You must live what you teach. You teach what you live. Biblical parenting starts as the parents begin to seek to be more like Christ Jesus. Isn't that the goal we should have for our children?! Wouldn't we want them to share in all Christ's characteristics of love, insight, trust and faithfulness? It is possible.

A Suggested Prayer

Dear Father in Heaven, we desperately need you to help us out of our mess. Our children are headed the course of Sodom and Gommorah. Time is short. The culture is filthy evil. Any slight hole in their heart and faith will be expanded into a gapping hole where the world's slime will crawl in.

Forgive me for my poor parenting. I mean by this that I have not been a good parent. I have failed you and my children. I am not even all sure in what ways I have failed, but I need You to forgive me, make me teachable and make me consistently love You and Your Word. I have loved the world. Now my children love the world. Please help me to change less my children go the course of the world. Please forgive and change me. Have mercy on our family. In Christ Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.