October 10th, 2013

Lamentations 3:27-29 — it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

I’m a very lucky man. Every morning my beautiful wife drives me to work. Now maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy, but it seems to me that drivers are just getting more and more crazy, bad tempered and rude. There was a typical example today. We were behind a pretty slow truck. There was a lady in, say, her late thirties behind us. She wanted us to go faster. She was mad. So she sat on our bumper all the way. What was the point?

Another thing. Did you see the news story about the 9-year old who took a flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas without bothering with formalities like having a ticket or boarding card? It turns out that it’s not the first time he’s been in trouble. In fact his father says he’s been out of control since he was 5!

What’s going on? And how are these incidents related to the verses from Lamentations?
It’s dangerous for men like me, in what might gently be called “late middle age” to be too critical of younger generations — but I think there are some unhealthy things going on.
Simply put — childhood is not what it was, and the journey from childhood to responsible courteous adulthood has, for more and more children, failed.

Consider this (shortened)commentary from The Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society.

Childhood is generally considered to be either a natural biological stage of development or a modern idea or invention. … Up until the 1990s, theories of childhood tended to be determined in a “top-down” approach which some have described as “imperialistic.” … Children themselves, while the focus of theory, have not generally been considered as having a legitimate voice in influencing its production. However, the UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (1989) created a climate for reconsidering this tendency and a subsequent focus on listening to the views of the child and CHILDREN’S RIGHTS of expression in general.

There lies the root of a sickness. The Bible, from first to last presents a very clear view of childhood, and the responsibilities of parents. Consider, for instance, Galatians 4:1-2, “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.”
The failure to bring up children “in the way that they should go” is to desert them. It leads, of course, to them growing up in the way that they should not go! Undisciplined children grow into undisciplined adults.

I know it’s old-fashioned, but I maintain that the ideas of putting duties before Rights and expecting children to obey parents and young adults to work to earn respect are right, and that forgetting them is a route to disaster.
Consider this. If you remove the Bible, sanctity of marriage and the right relationship between parents and children, what kind of society is left. Call me an old Jeremiah if you like — but I think it’s a satanic triple threat. Time to stand up for Christianity, marriage and family!