Bad kids are often the result of bad parents

It is common to hear people today complain about the younger generation and how the world is falling apart because of all of the bad kids. Instead of complaining about the kids, answer this question, “Who raised them?

This topic isn’t one that is often preached from the pulpit because it might offend someone and hurt the weekly offering. However, it is a topic that must be addressed with the church teaching God’s Word on the issues surrounding parents responsibility.

It is possible for a child who has the best parents to turn out badly and possible for a child who has bad parents to turn out well There are examples of both within the Bible but the overwhelming majority of those mentioned often followed in the footsteps of their parents.

2nd Kings 22: 2, And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

1st Kings 15: 26, And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin

If more parents took their responsibility to their kids seriously, there would be fewer complaints about the younger generations.

Proverbs 1:8-9 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

In past generations, children were overwhelmingly raised by their mother and father with the help of grandparents or other close family members. Today, kids, beginning as infants, are sent to daycares until they are old enough to go to public school. Instead of parents raising them, they are raised by daycare workers and school teachers.

Parents have limited time with their kids due to work schedules or due to broken homes and the short time they spend with them cannot be enough to overcome the influences from others the child is around more.

It would be impossible to cover all that the Bible has to say about the responsibility of parents to their kids but the one thing that sums it up is that the parents are to love their children enough to raise them and teach them the Lord’s Word.