Have you ever observed the following scenario? : children go to church with their parents regularly; the same children suddenly disappear from church attendance when they reach ‘the age of driving’. Ever ask yourself, “Why?” My pastor hit the nail on the head in Sunday’s message when he said, “Children who spend their entire growing years in church, depart when they get older, because .. ” – are you ready for this? – “they have only HEARD about God, without ever having had an ENCOUNTER with God.” In a lot of cases, we as parents have placed more emphasis on church attendance than we have on introducing the children to Father God. To take this a step further, speaking personally, children observe their dads’ behaviors. Dads who take the little ones to church every Sunday, but live like the rest of the world from Monday through Saturday – you know: partying, cussing, arguing, lying, cheating, etc., etc. – are presenting two different messages to their children. The children get older, see the hyprocrisy of dads’ lifestyles, and say, “I don’t want any part of this church scene; I’ll just go do my own thing rather than pretend to be a Christian on Sundays.” In reality, they are being more honest in their choices than the examples being set for them by pretending dads. I can write this because I was one of those pretending dads. God has dealt with me in the recent past, about talking ABOUT God without ever really having taken the time to KNOW Him intimately. I’ve asked God to forgive me for such neglect. The next step is to ask the 3 children to forgive me also. And finally, I need to forgive myself, quit dwelling on past failures, and actually set the example of commitment and live what I say without saying anything. It’s more important for others to READ my life than HEAR my words.
I thank God for His patience with me and for His promise of forgiveness, recorded in First John, chapter 1, verse 9. Read it for yourself. Believe it for your own promise. Thank you.