Inside the school the boy plopped himself down on the stairs while the dad spoke to the school receptionist. When greeted warmly by the school secretary, the boy did not even look up from his game. Trying to engage the young man, she asked "What is your name?" No response. She then turned the inquirers over to the principal.
The dad explained that he was having trouble with the boy and wanted to put him into the Christian school. "He needs help." The principal listened to the father share the situation and greeted the young man seated on the third step. The boy did not even look up. He wouldn't answer or acknowledge the principal either. Finally, the school official had to inform the parent, "It is too late. If he refuses to listen or obey you, we are not able to work with that attitude or to help him here." Sadly, the father looked at the grandfather and realized the truth of that statement. It was too late.
Let's look at the big picture. God obviously calls parents to "bring up children in the training and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Parents really only have two choices concerning the education of their children: either do it themselves or have someone teach them who will instill the same truth and values that the Christian parents know. Yet public education is free. Often we are willing to compromise our convictions when money is involved.
But we all know that "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). And in this case the money saved opens the door to the child being brought up in the ways of the world. Two studies conducted by both the Barna Group and USA Today found that nearly 75 percent of Christian young people fall away from the faith and leave the church after high school. Consider the facts. Statistics show that children today spend an average of 30 hours per week in school where they are often taught ideas that are diametrically opposed to biblical truths, e.g., evolution, the acceptance of homosexuality, living for self, etc. Then they come home to another 30 hours per week spent in front of a television set bombarded by commercials and sitcoms, playing video games, or connecting on social media. This is in contrast to the time spent weekly in the church classroom or in family Biblical instruction: 45 minutes.
It is time to wake up. Obviously God knew the challenge before He declared this truth, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6) Parents, who do everything in their power to build God's love and truth in their young children, need to make sure that when they reach school age, Christian truth and environment continues to be the heart of their learning. Churches need to encourage and to be willing to count the cost and make sure that Christian education is available for every child. The time to put children in Christian school is when their heart attitudes and thought patterns are being formed. Unfortunately, many parents are only awakened to the need when the young boy or girl exhibits negative attitudes and behavior from years of being exposed to and trained by worldly ways. That is too late.
Another older parent, who now supports Christian education, weeps as he tells me how his son has left the faith and is showing very destructive behavior to himself and the family. He now greatly regrets not having put him in Christian school when he was young. Obviously, God never gives up on anyone. However, it is not always necessary to go through all the grief and misery, and there is never any guarantee that the child will repent and come back to the Lord.
Consider the lesson of Esau. "lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. (Hebrews 12:16-17) Sometimes it is too late.
