Children
and Chance
Almost everyone, it
would seem, has his own ideas on the care and counsel of children.
For some, the process does not mean more than providing the physical
necessities if that. For others, it means minutely prescribing
everything. Both are questionable extremes. Perhaps no one can
say with finality just how far we should go in either direction,
because children differ, and so do parents, and so do circumstances.
But this it would
surely be safe to say: that the shaping of the thoughts and characters
and lives of children should not be left too much to chance. It
isn't possible for us to insulate them from all unlooked-for influences,
nor, perhaps, would it always be desirable. But if we leave their
lives too exposed, we issue an open invitation to chance.
And what comes in
at the open door may not be what it should be. To be sure, many
things are going to come into their lives anyway that neither
we nor they can control. But where we can counsel and safeguard
and wisely control, we have an obligation to do so. For God is
not going to hold anyone more responsible for their children than
the parent.
Few things that matter
much can be safely left to chance.The farmer's crops for example,
are subject to many uncertainties. But a wise farmer doesn't let
pest and parasites and other undesirable elements make inroads
if he can keep them out. And if he does leave too much to chance,
he may have a crop of weeds. And any business that is left to
chance is likely soon to become insolvent.
And there is no more
important business before us, none with more far-reaching consequences
to our own happiness and to the happiness of generations to come,
than the guiding and the safeguarding of our children.
It is written that
there was a man who cared for his herds and his fields, and for
his stocks and his bonds with great care, but who didn't know
so much about where his children went or what they saw or what
they heard or whom they were with. It is not written, however,
that he was a wise man.
We have an obligation
to be ever alert to all that pertains to our children, and the
less of this we leave to chance, the more we fill their lives
with the right things, the less room there will be for the wrong
things.
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