Family
This is the time of the year when we recognize special days for our mothers and fathers. If you have been blessed to have a good mother and father, you should be thankful. I have and I am blessed. Today we live in a world that is lacking in honor. Instead of honoring our parents, we have become a society that wants to put the blame on parents for our own failures in life.
When I look back on my life, I know that I am blessed. Out of all the parents I could have had in this world, God chose Billy and Mary Dean Hooper to be mine. In Jeremiah 1:5 it says "before I formed you in the womb I knew you." So, evidently God knew what He was doing on May 15, 1964 when He delivered me to my parents as the entry point to this world. They forever charted the course of my life by teaching me the Bible.
I grew up as a preacher’s kid. As you can imagine, it wasn’t the easiest life for a child. Everybody expected your family to be perfect. There were many times when I was the examples in my dad’s sermon and times when I would be “invited” to come up and sit with my mother. Not only did I have the fear of God but also the times when the “spirit of the belt” was laid upon me to correct my ways. Today, I understand a lot more now than I did then. I have come to respect the strong moral values my parents had and the high standard they set in my life. Without it I can’t imagine where I would be today.
Today’s generation looks for someone to blame and depend on the gospels Dr. Phil and Oprah for their answers. Yes, we could look back and criticize the past but isn’t it easy to do it from this side of it? I know that my parents did the best that they could for me. I don’t harbor any bad feelings over it. The bottom line is that they raised me right. If anything was dysfunctional in our lives, it was the church organization that created the dysfunction. Fortunately, in spite of our denomination, I developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which I value today. When you build a child’s foundation on Christ, instead of a religion, you create a foundation that can withstand the storms of life.
I often look around the neighborhoods on the drive to church and it saddens me to see children at home on Sunday mornings instead of going to church. They don't even realize what a disadvantage they are in when they have parents who don’t even try to give them a chance to decide about Jesus. Instead, the focus is on careers, entertainment and recreation. During the week I see a lot of parents in the vacant lot next to our church for Little League practice. They fill our parking lot for that but find no time for the Lord on Sunday morning.
Someone once said, “Our children are messengers we send to a time we shall not see.” If we are not even giving our children a chance to hear about Jesus, what kind of message are we sending to the next generation? Even though children grow up and make their own choices, the character qualities we model and teach them will help mold them and give them direction. We need future generations who know a God that can provide those directions.
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