Today’s Scripture Reading [January 15, 2012]
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. [Deuteronomy 6:5-7. KJV]
Last week was the start of a new school year. For many parents, the start of a new school year is a challenging one and this is especially so for those with young children who are entering the school for the first time. For the older children who are going to prepare for important examinations like the PSLE, ‘O’ or ‘A’ level, parents are very anxious because these are important examinations that will determine whether their children can get into the school or course of study of their choice. This really underscores the objective of what parents think education today is all about - achieving outstanding academic results to get into outstanding schools or the course of study that seemingly promises the best career future for our children. Besides, our home and most properly our car, education is the biggest investment of a family budget, and hence it should rightly be the case because education is not just the future for our children, it is also the future for ourselves. This is no wonder why parents are so excited and so stressed up when it comes to their children’s education. But is education is all about getting to choice school or graduate with a degree from a prestigious college that could give our children a bright career future?
Though not often talk about, the topic on the state of children discipline inside and outside the school is usually swept under the carpet. When parents met at social events such as at wedding, at birthday party or at company function, how often do we hear parents discuss or talk about school disciplinary issues. This is something parents preferred not to talk about and pretend that everything is ‘ok’ after all ‘my kids are not problem kids.’ Most of the topics they talked about are centered around school homework and academic performance of their kids. Very little, if any, is discussed on children’s discipline but we all know, it’s a problem in all schools. It is quite disheartening to hear one of my friends who is a secondary school principal remarked that “it’s so common now for schools to make police reports which involved students in possessing pornographic materials, fight or causing trouble around the schools’ neighbourhood. Tell me, which school has never lodged any policy report.” This is simply quite unbelievable because just half a generation ago, making police report by school authority against delinquent students was simply unheard of. The worst that could happen, then, was the school disciplinary master or principal would write to the parents or call up the parents and complain to them about their children’s discipline. We must admit, most of us parents today are more ‘educated’ than those half a generation ago. Parents today have more years of schooling and many are graduates of polytechnics or university. So, what has gone wrong today - our young children and also parents like you and me? Have we all forgetting God and let the fundamental sin of forgetting God that puts us into such despair? Is this due to our own ungodliness that we find it quite impossible to bring our children to be godly?
Perhaps we want to look back and go to the Book of Isaiah because we can find some of the answers here. In this Book, Prophet Isaiah was inspired to condemn ancient Israelites for the fundamental sin of forgetting God. The Israelites were so concerned on prosperity that they forgot who was their True God was and who gave them their bounty. We can read this in Isaiah 5:3-4: “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes”. We know that both in both the New and the Old Testaments, God uses the vineyard as a symbol of what care He personally gave to His chosen people. He gave the people every possible blessing to bring them happiness and success provided they do not fall in the fundamental sin of forgetting God because our the sin of forgetting God will only turn our abundance into the intoxicating fruit of decadence (Isaiah 5:11-12). Today, we are no different from them. Our endless search for prosperity, for riches, for money is a very strong indication that we are losing sight of God. Rising up children, investing in their education and hope that they can have the best career future is a rightful goal that all parents should attempt to pursue rigorously for them children. There is nothing wrong about this. But is that all and view that the only purpose of education is to securing a ‘wealthy’ career for our children; nothing else matter?
Before Prophet Isaiah, God has used another prophet, Prophet Moses, to warn Israel in advance that the blessing He has planned to pour out to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 7:12-23) came with a requirement – to love God with all their heart, their soul and their might: “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)” These verses couldn't be any clearer then to tell ourselves that we must not forget the God who blessed us so abundantly; that we must teach our children about God, and teaching our children about God should not be a weekly ‘ritual’ of sending our kids to Sunday school or some Bible classes. Rather teaching our children about God is the daily responsibilities of parents and as parents, we must ensure that not a single day should have gone by without teaching our children to love our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might. This warning in fact is more relevant today than it was few thousands before because the influence outside our home has given parents great challenge. These challenges are so overwhelmed that bringing up a child to live a godly life today is like swimming upstream given that there are so many temptations out there. The world is going exactly the opposition direction, namely downstream. We must not be disappointed when the academic results of our children are not to our expectation. We must not be disappointed when they did not get into the school or get into the course of study that is not of our choice. Instead we must keep rejoicing, regardless of our children’s academic results and to continue to swim upstream by teaching our children how to obey God because this is a very important requirement if we want to continue to let God pour out His blessing of abundance upon us. It is important to understand that the primary purpose of education is to learn how to be obedience to the law of God. The purpose of learning about the practical aspects of everyday life should be secondary. We must also not to over rely on school teachers and church workers when it comes to the primary purpose of education. In fact, the home should be the first and most effective agency in the education process, and parents especially fathers (Proverbs 1:8-9) are the first and most effective teachers of their children, not school teachers, principals or church pastors. This responsibility is also expressed in Genesis 18:19 where God states His expectation that Abraham will train his children and his household to walk in the ways of the Lord, and in Proverbs 22:6 is yet another familiar exhortation for parents to teach their children according to the way of the Lord. While we can all honestly admit that training people to acquire knowledge and skills is important especially in this modern time when science, technology and even the way people doing business are changing by the day, it is even more important to understand it is not good that the soul be without knowledge of God (Proverbs 19:2-3) because only in the knowledge of God can be the fountain of our life that reveal His holiness (Psalm 36:9).
its the same ...you dont even know invisibleman exists yet you want to talk about it ? 
