A few nights ago we were out in Dorset, England, doing outreach work among teenagers somewhat the worse for drink and cannabis. One of the recurring questions that they asked me was, “Do you ever let your children out on there own?” or some variant of that.
The answer was of course “Yes”. However, a more full answer might have been “Well, yes, where it is a respectable place – but there is no way that I would let just one of them come here with you!”
This set me thinking about the right and proper way for parents to manage their children’s freedom. We were out doing outreach or evangelism among the unbelieving teenagers of Dorset, and somewhat more than just unbelieving – they are – well depraved. They are into getting drunk, smoking cannabis (and some probably stronger drugs at times) and with, shall we say, lower morals with regard to sex and homosexual behaviour.
So here I think we should look first at Jesus’ instruction to his disciples when he sent them out. He first sent out the twelve, and then the 72, but both times he sent them out in twos.
7. And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits
Mark 6:7
1. After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
Luke 10:1
Why did He send them out in twos? Well, He was sending them out as ‘lambs among wolves’ (Luke 10:3), but I do not think it was for personal physical protection that He sent them out in twos, but to help them to resist temptation. Two disciples or two children offer little more for a mob or crowds to deal with than does one, but two together are much stronger in resistance to temptation. Solomon, who knew a thing or two, also teaches us about the value of working in pairs.
9. Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. 10. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. 11. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? 12. And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (KJV)
I believe that in England today, we need to be thinking more about ‘falling’ into temptation rather than ‘falling’ prey to the rampaging mob. Secondly, I need to be acting as the good father, protecting and training up my/His children. I believe that God gives fathers the responsibility to train up God’s children.
6. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
An important part of this is in helping godly children not to become over friendly with the children of the world.
20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:20
Even more so than this it is my responsibility as a father to keep my/His children from choosing their marriage partners from ungodly children, see Genesis 24:1-4. One of the challenges with today’s culture is that people – children especially – tend to group and socialize in peer groups rather than families.
My children love to go out with me and we work together and play together. I know what they are doing and they know what I am doing. But so many children today spend time in their bedrooms or out with friends. Often not even eating with their parents. We home educate our children so they do not spend 5 hours a day with their peers, ungodly teachers, or under an atheistic, humanistic, evolutionary curriculum, but many people whose children do go to school do not even spend time as a family outside of school.
My child do go out without me, they may go to St John Cadets, to a county show, or shopping etc. but they do not spend their evenings on the streets with their peers.
