“Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.” – Joshua 2:8-9
I paused when I read that last sentence. After that whole generation with Joshua died, another generation grew up that did not know the LORD or what He had done for their nation. Why didn’t they know? Had no one told them? Had no one educated them on the miraculous prosperity and protection provided while Joshua ruled? Had prosperity spoiled the next generation to the point they took the goodness and blessings of God for granted and failed to worship Him, to seek Him, to obey His commands? The hearts of the people no longer honored the LORD their God, and there were consequences for their sin.
My mind compared the Israelites of that day to present day America. God’s words for over 200 years adorned churches, government buildings, schools and universities, and homes. The majority of the population attended church. God held a rightful place of prominence in our society. But there arose a rebellion against the established norms of society and family life, a restlessness among young people for something else. The next generation forgot about the goodness of the Lord as parents and families began to suffer the consequences of brokenness and loss in homes and families. Focus of the people shifted to self and needs. God was shuffled aside. His words faded from memories and mouths. Bibles adorned furniture and bookstores but held no place in people’s lives.
Many grew up during the time of transition from the prosperity and blessing of the past to the destructive consequences of rebellion against the commands of God. During the process, countless parents failed to teach their children about Jesus, the bible, or how to pray. They may have made attempts to establish relationship with God but felt inadequate to be a spiritual leader in the home. People simply did not know how to do this because they had not witnessed it in their own families during childhood.
As a young child, my father would take my sister and me to Sunday School and drop us off. He would always be waiting to pick us up afterwards, but we never talked about Jesus or the story we learned or the songs we sang at church. When we began living with Aunt Lucy, she would take us to church and drop us off, and return later to pick us up. She never attended church with us. We eventually began riding the church bus to and from service. Again, at home we never talked about Jesus or the bible stories or the songs we learned at church.
When my husband and I started a family, we did not take our children to church. His job schedule required that he work three weekends a month, and I did not want to attend alone. I wanted us to worship and grow together as a family. Our second child was born a few years later, and again we did not attend church. Both were enrolled in a church affiliated after-school care program with the hope they would learn about Jesus in that atmosphere. They learned the songs that I sang in Sunday School and participated in Christmas plays as young children. I would feel a twinge of guilt occasionally but dismissed it and trusted somehow in the future they would be taught about Jesus from someone who was better equipped to answer any questions.
In 2012 I was reading a teaching by Dr. Charles Stanley. In this post, he was answering a question posed by a married couple who had raised their children by wrong principles. The children were grown and the couple had continued to worry about the past, regretting their failures as parents. They were seeking advice on anything they could do at this late date. Dr. Stanley’s response spoke to me personally as I read his words. “There is hardly a parent alive who does not have some regrets and painful memories of their failures as a mother or a father. Children are infinitely complex, and we can no more be perfect parents than we can be perfect human beings. The pressures of living are often enormous. We get tired and irritated; we are influenced by our physical bodies and our emotions, which sometimes prevent us from saying the right things and being the models we should be. We don’t always handle our children as unemotionally as we wish we had, and it is very common to look back a year or two later and see how wrong we were in the way we approached a problem. All of us experience these failures! No one does the job perfectly!”
He suggested we get alone with God and pray: “Lord, You know my inadequacies. You know my weaknesses, not only in parenting, but in every area of my life. I did the best I could, but it wasn’t good enough. As You broke the fishes and the loaves to feed the five thousand, now take my meager effort and use it to bless my family. Make up for the things I did wrong. Satisfy the needs that I have not satisfied. Wrap Your great arms around my children and draw them close to You. And be there when they stand at the great crossroads between right and wrong. All I can give is my best, and I’ve done that. Therefore, I submit to You my children and myself and the job I did as a parent. The outcome now belongs to You.” Dr. Stanley added, “I know the Father will honor that prayer, even for parents whose job is finished. The Lord does not want you to suffer from guilt over events you can no longer influence. The past is the past. Let it die, never to be resurrected. Give the situation to God, and let Him have it. I think you’ll be surprised to learn that you’re no longer alone!” During my quiet time with the Lord later that evening, this was my prayer, too.
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14.
(Photo courtesy of Pexels.com, Brett Jordan)