By Deborah Hollifield, PPL Former Executive Director
Children of all ages are returning to the classroom this quarter after a year of what was optimistically referred to as “Distance Learning.” Some fortunate students had at least one stay-at-home parent who could organize and supervise their on-line and photocopied lessons. Most probably had frazzled parents, run ragged from trying to cope with having the family cooped up together all day, multi-tasking on laundry and Zoom meetings, while making sure the kids were doing their lessons and not gaming on their laptops. “Distant” or not, there wasn’t a lot of learning going on, and there is a lot of catching up to do. Sadly, some may never catch up.
As difficult as it was to keep up with reading and math, how much more difficult is it to teach our children how to pray, why to pray and who to pray for? Many churches remain closed, Sunday School is slow to resume, and who in the meantime has been carving out time to make certain that the faith given once for all is being passed on to the young?
When this generation reaches adulthood, will they be able to rightly handle the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15), hold to the traditions handed down by their faithful forebears (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3)?
How will they catch up without the help of the people who vowed at their baptisms to “endeavor to set…a godly example, [to] pray with and for them, [to} teach them the doctrines of our holy religion, and [to] strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?”
So many poorly educated Americans do not know the Founders’ stories, and have forgotten the Christian foundations of freedom, along with the reasons for, and responsibilities of, citizenship. Pray that mature Christians will re-dedicate ourselves to ensuring that this generation of children will not find themselves living only on “the fumes” of Christian moralism and ideals, without an understanding of the Source, reason and goals of life in Christ; and that they will see the image of God borne by all human beings as something sacred and worthy of protection.
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