They Are YOUR Children!

I'm sure everyone has heard about the decision of the Portland, ME school board to give birth control pills to middle school girls without their parents knowledge, let alone consent. This makes my blood boil! And what's even worse is that there are parents who agree with this policy! Is there no sanity left in our culture?

Remember, public schools are government schools. So when they give children anything without their parents' knowledge it's really the government telling parents what they can and can't know about their own children. It is government intrusion of the worst kind. I don't see how any parent could submit to that, but some do. It's as if they don't understand who they are or what their job is. I'll tell them.

Parents, you job is to raise your children!!! They're your responsibility and yours alone. You have no right to expect anyone or anything--grandparents, government, day care centers, even the church--to take on any part of the job for you. And you should never let anyone or anything take away any part of the job from you. Parents, you are to provide for your children not only financially but also morally and spiritually. You are to consciously teach them values not just let them create their own. And you are to teach them faith. The Bible clearly gives parents, not clergy or religious institutions, the primary responsibility to teach God's law to the next generation. This is a BIG job!

Many frazzled modern parents apparently feel it's too much. They work 8 or more hours a day and think that that is their main parenting function. Exhausted, they begin to believe that things like potty training or teaching values are, or should be, someone else's job. Indeed, many modern parents feel that's what they're paying day care centers to do. By the time their children start school these parents are already comfortable with giving up huge chunks of their authority in exchange for less responsibility. This sad state of affairs reveals itself most starkly in situations like the one in Maine, where some parents happily embrace the government's take over of a very important part of their job. It's like they're saying, "Yes! Less work for me!".

I implore all parents to take back their role and rights as parents. You are the authority over your children. You, not the government, decide what values they will have. I understand that parenting can be hard and exhausting, especially when it's combined with working outside the home. But when you brought that little bundle home from the hospital you were committing yourself to that awesome task. Your children are a sacred trust. You, not grandparents, day care centers, or schools will be held responsible by God for how they turn out. They are YOUR children. Act like it!