3rd John states "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth"



I raised my adopted kids since they were 3 and 8. I raised them in good Churches that they enjoyed being a part of. I spent time with them in the Word, and Lisa and I gave them the greatest example of teaching them by our lifestyles. We prayed, never faught, balanced our lives so that they were never smothered with it... yet enough to have a firm foundation in Truth, Doctrine, and Apologetics.

Today they are adults. Adults with no interest in the things of God. They're good kids, good morals, high standards, smart and courteous. Not anti-God, but no desire in walking with God. This breaks my heart. I know they have their own lives and their own free wills, but I was so hoping to have that joy that John talked about in seeing them follow the Lord.

Little things bum me now. Like my son, he's got a very foul mouth... and he just got his 1st tat. Nothing bad, just a pointless line from a poem. My daughter just had the most beautiful wedding ever... without God. She used to love Christian music and had a nice collection. Today she posted her favorite song on Facebook- "Prayer" by Disturbed.



I want to pray that they will grow closer to Him, but I myself haven't been that close to Him myself...

These things make me sad.

It makes me sad too brother (and I will be praying for you and your children). I think the best we can do is raise them in God's word and try to be the best example we can. But the rest is in their hands (so as concerned parents we pray without ceasing for our children).

Let me tell you what my wife did when she was younger. She was raised in a very good church and knew the love of God her whole life. But when she was a teen she started dating this pot-smoking, foul-mouthed, long-haired, boozing metal-head atheist boy. She started falling easily into his world and quit going to church (also quit reading her bible). Fast-forward about 8 years and she is married to this degenerate. He has gotten a haircut, and cleaned up his act a bit (but he still doesn't really buy all this Jesus stuff). They have a baby girl, and something clicks in the young mother and she insists that they start attending church so her child can grow up in the right environment. Her retrobate husband agrees (but still doesn't buy all the Jesus stuff). Another 10 years goes by before the idoit father finally understands that he is a miserable wretched sinner in need of salvation, and that he can only get it from Jesus. By now his wife (ok my wife) has a faith in Christ stronger than she ever had as a child. Of course she lived like the devil for a few years, and even married a non believer. But God was faithful and allowed her to "come back" (if you will). As a parent with the same fears (and sadness) you are experiencing, I think all we can do is pray and hold fast to God's promises. Remember this one.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Prov 22:6

I think that, and prayer is our only answer. It sounds like you have taken care of the training part.

Hey, that's exactly what I needed. Thanks so much for the encouragement and push to keep praying with hope. Dude, your (and your wife's) testimony is amazing. And really, my wife and I talked about it a few days ago, and she mentioned the same thing: It may take either a tragedy or a baby (which some consider synonymns -JK!!!) to get her to react as your wife did.

I believe the miracle of childbirth HAS to clear the mind enough to see God's hand in creation. My daughter plans to have kids after college in about 3 to 5 years, but plans don't always go as planned. Who knows. As for my son, I can't say he's any more brighter than I was at 18... but it was a difficult event in my life at 19 that led me to give my life to God.

I don't regret how I brought the kids up, however there's always things I wish I did differently (if you didn't feel that way, then you're not human). I don't know if pushing the Word a little harder would've gave them stronger foundation or if it woulda pushed them out completely.

Guilty/Forgiven, I know how this feels.
I have the same story about our kids.
We told the kids about God, brought them to church, to Sunday School and when they are on High School they lost God.
This makes me sad ... so sad.
Our kids are great kids too, but not interested in God.
When there are important things I tell them to pray for them.

All we can do is keep our kids in prayer.
Once a vocalist of a famous band told me.
Sometimes they only need a flat tire to come back to God.

I'm glad that Gary brought up the verse about training up a child in the way they should go. Hold on to that promise, continue to live your life for Christ in front of them, and pray, pray, pray! God will do the rest!

I wonder sometimes if things like this don't happen so that God can really show us how He feels when we walk away from Him--even if it's just a temporary separation.

One more time… will you walk away… will you go astray?

I pray that I'll never walk away.

I definitely don't beat myself up over anything. It's just the nagging concern that death is imminent and is not a respecter of age. I know we're not suppose to worry, but I think I speak for all here when I say that we want those we love to be there with us forever (though I know that's not gonna be the case, I don't want to accept it).

We have told the kids that we can't believe for them, we chan't give them an eternal life.
Last year I have told my kids what's going to happen when Jesus comes back to take with Him all his children.
How this earth will be a real hell without the children of God.
Yes, all we can do is pray and pray and pray.

Thanks for sharing that, everyone. I guess all we can do in life is do our best, and the rest is up to God. But it's difficult bringing up children in this current world (I guess people have said that since year dot, but it's even more difficult nowadays). The internet can put so many seeds of doubt in teenagers minds, and with all the talk of not believing the Bible and not believing in God then kids are attacked every day.

I watched a TV programme yesterday where a guy just pulled apart the Genesis story showing how absolutely ridiculous it was. Others soon joined in the abuse and in the end I was just sitting there thinking 'maybe they've got a point.' And if teenagers witness things like that all the time then it's going to be really tough on them. Fortunately for me I've been blessed with some great preachers and teachers over the years who put everything in context. "Ok, so you don't believe in creationism, and think our belief is stupid... well look at your belief, you believe you came from a rock.' When someone attacks Christianity and they are very forthright when they do it then it is hard to ignore what they are saying. But time to think gives you more clarity and then the Bible does make sense.

It's a tough world, alright!

Gary, thanks for sharing your story, that was very heartwarming.

Fundy

Too true ! This world's philosophies are crap, and now it's a 100 times worse cuz of the internet and all the other technologies bombarding people.

I'm gonna trust God for His promise that if they're raised in the Word that there'll come a day when they'll return to it.