While They are Young
Based on several religious studies, only about twenty five percent of Christians were over the age of eighteen when they chose to follow Christ. This means that the vast majority of believers get saved before adulthood. There are exceptions, yet often the older we get, the harder our hearts tend to become. Only for a short time are we like soft clay—impressionable to outward influences and naive to the demands of life. Yet soon we are faced with the heat of personal heartache and distrust in man. We then dry up in confused bitterness, allowing skepticism and pride to crack us.
Almost two decades have passed since I walked the streets that surrounded the North Carolina State campus, seeking to hand out church tracts and witness to college students. Yet I still remember how oftentimes I was met with belligerent attitudes and shoddy arguments over how religion is evil. There were so many who masqueraded as model progressives who had life all figured out. They didn't want to entertain reasonable discussions over the teachings of Scripture. Their minds were corrupted and hearts calloused with misinformation, doubt, and bitterness. Paul exhorted believers in 1 Corinthians 14:20 to "...not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature." (ESV) Many universities today have managed to flip this around.
In our minds we are to be mature, but in our hearts we are to be childlike. You see, it is recorded in Luke 18 that the disciples chided parents for bringing their infants and toddlers to see Jesus. I'm sure they thought to themselves, "We are not a daycare! We are disciples of God’s kingdom!" Yet in the midst of their stubborn outcry, Jesus said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein." (16–17) Childlike faith is simple and pure, fervent and full. Nothing else will do when we come to Christ.
Parents, please know that you only have a short time to teach your children of the love of Christ before the world-system snatches their hearts away with fleeting pleasures and foolish pride! Don't deceive yourself into thinking that you're doing your part as long as you drag them to church once in a while. Charles Spurgeon once said, "Train up a child in the way they should go, but be sure to go that way yourself." They must see Christ in you while they are young. God is not concerned as much with whether you get a big job promotion as He is with whether you are, in your home, the spiritual leader and faithful teacher that He has called you to be.
