Children and youth have no zeal for God or the things of God because their parents don’t. It is true that parents and churches have to compete with worldly entertainment, but if parents would teach their children while they are young and if parents would exhibit an enthusiasm for Christ before their children, their children would grow up with a stronger desire for God and the things of God. This is what it means to raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Parents are to teach their children the Word and model before their children the Word and they are to do so with passion.
When children think about church, they think boring. They think this for two reasons. First, their parents think church is boring and because oftentimes it is boring. Children more often than not go to church because their parents make them go. Their parents go because they think of going to church as a duty to do, a task to be completed, more so than out of a love for God. This is made evident to the child (to the world and to God) by their lifestyle outside the church. If they loved God and had a passion for God, then they’d do the things approved of by God. They would be eager to assemble themselves with like-minded believers. They’d witness more. They’d minister more. They’d attend prayer meetings and Bible Studies regularly. They certainly would arrive at church on time. Parents’ actions loudly declare to their children their true level of commitment to God and their true feelings for Him. Not only would they do the things that please Him, they would do them with excitement.
Parents underestimate the effect their lifestyle and witness have on their children. They are to model Christ and Christ was zealous about God and His Kingdom. Christian parents should be as well. Instead, they make going to church as appealing as sitting through a five hour lecture by a CPA on the intricacies of tax law. They make going to church as interesting as watching water boil. This is because church is not exciting to them. It’s just another thing to do. But if parents spent their time away from church teaching and ministering to their children, they would go to church with enthusiasm because of the drawing power of the Word. At church, they would be empowered and equipped to minister during the week. On the Lord’s Day, they’d go to church with eagerness because of their desire to share what the Lord had done for them and through them during the week.
What about parents who merely send their children to church but don’t go themselves? What message does that send to the child? These parents might tell them that they need to go so they can learn about God, but the child will wonder, ‘why?’ They will want to know what benefit is in it. What’s the purpose of their going to church? How will learning about God help them in life? Why do they need to go but their parents don’t? Don’t their parents need God? Don’t their parents need to know about God? Their parents may tell them that they don’t need to go because they already know about God. (Of course, the truth of the matter is the parents don’t want to know about God and they are sending their children because they see the church as a free baby-sitting service.) So, as these children see their parents cussing, drinking, fornicating, and doing God-knows-what-else, these kids are going to ask themselves, “How is knowing about God going to help me?” It’s no wonder that when these kids come to church they don’t get anything out of it. Nothing they learn is reinforced in the home. In fact, the opposite is true. The things that are reinforced or modeled are the things they should not do, but these will be the things they will do. Though the seed is sown, it doesn’t take root because actions speak louder than words.
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