I was having dinner with my mother
in law and Jack tonight, and Jack was being... well... Jack! He was a little
loud but nothing too bad. Suddenly this little mutant in the booth next to us
pops his head up over the wall and says, "Shut up, stupid baby!" Then
says, "I'm gonna fight that baby and throw his food away!" His mother
did NOTHING! Are you kidding me?!?!
In light of these events, I have
decided to dust off my soapbox for a moment. Please bear with me...
The Bible tells us, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is
old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Most people see this as if
you teach your child about God when they are young, even if they stray they
will come back to Him. I definitely agree with that, but I see another side as
well. If you teach a child to be ill mannered, disrespectful, and cruel, when
they are old they will not depart from it. It will be a pattern that may
continue for the rest of their lives.
One of the things that made me most
upset tonight was not that the kid was being rude to my son, (Although, I'm not
going to lie to you... you mess with my kids and Mama bear will come out with
claws drawn!), it was that this child learned this from someone, most likely a
parent. It's sad to think that this child is in a place where he hears things
like "stupid, shut up, and I'm going to fight you." If this doesn't
change, this boy may be a resident of one of our jails in the future, or a
resident in one of our cemeteries sooner than he should be.
Hillary Clinton started this thing
with "it takes a village to raise a child." Ummm... to quote someone
from the Internet, "I've seen the village and I don't want it raising my
children!"
Parenthood is a full-time job with
benefits that you may not see for years. It is not for the faint of heart! My
mom once told me that the reason we had issues in our relationship in the
beginning was because she had no idea how to be a parent. She figured if she
did nothing, she couldn't do anything wrong. It wasn't until she became a
believer in Jesus that she saw the error in this. Through Bible study, prayer
and encouragement from people in our congregation, Mom and I repaired
our relationship. She learned how to raise me the right way. She was involved
to the best of her ability and I am thankful everyday for the hard work she put
in!
So as I finish with my rant, just
remember these words... It doesn't take a village to raise a child. It takes
God-fearing, Bible believing parents!
It does, however, take a Viking to
raze a village!
