The toughest job on the entire planet is being a parent! “Train up a child in the way he should go” (Prov. 22:6). What parent hasn’t felt the overwhelming challenge of that command? “Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Easier said than done!
So, a Christian parent dedicates himself/herself to two decades of pointing those “arrows,” who are “a heritage from the Lord” (Psa. 127:3-4), toward eternity, in order that their children might be presented back to THEIR FATHER in heaven. What a daunting task! A task that no parent ever feels fully qualified to undertake and a responsibility for which makes all parents wonder how God will “grade them” in the end!
Those two decades (or so) are spent teaching, training, guiding, protecting and aiming our children toward heaven. The Bible and its inspired truths are set out as THE guiding principles for life (no exceptions). Emphasis is placed in godly homes on loving Jesus, loving His Word, putting the Lord and His church first in ALL that we do, etc. Christian parents talk to their children about “doing what God wants.”
Knowing that this is generally true for most Christian homes (on a varying scale), it is so tremendously difficult to understand how, after those two decades of raising their children to be like Jesus and to honor Jesus, that those same “godly” parents can (1) approve of their adult child’s sinful lifestyle and (2) sometimes even join in the same misguided and sinful activities themselves. “Like what?” you might ask. How often has it happened that Christian parents loosen their “once-solid-and-fixed” convictions and offer their approval (and personal participation sometimes) when their adult children (1) divorce and remarry without Scriptural cause, or (2) turn to homosexual behaviors and lifestyles, or (3) leave the Lord’s church for some denominational group, or (4) become SMWHO* “Christians,” or (5) begin drinking alcohol, or (6) conform to worldly standards in lifestyle choices and behaviors, etc., etc.? If Scripture clearly teaches that such matters reflect a lack of respect for God and His word, and if such choices carry a person “away” from God rather than “closer to” God, and if such directions in life (if not repented of and forgiven) can lead one to eternal punishment, how then can anyone (but especially the parents of the one engaged in such behavior) approve of and perhaps even engage in, as well, that which dishonors our precious Savior?!
I wish I had space to write of Eli, whom God said He would punish because of “the iniquity which he knew” about but “did not rebuke” in his adult children (1 Sam. 3:13; 2:12, 17, 22-25). God doesn’t think “it’s cool” for His people to follow along with their own adult children’s waywardness! In fact, He condemns it! May God help us to put Him and His will first in all that we do! [*SMWHO=“Sunday Morning Worship Hour Only”]