God has not just entrusted the spiritual development of our children to us, he had charged us with the responsibility for it. Although I’m sure there are many complicated explanations associated with the carnage that has taken place at Sandy Hook, Columbine, Paducah, and other places (Just listen to the talk shows!), I’m still convinced that if parents took the responsibility of training their children spiritually and living up to God’s charge to “teach them diligently to observe all that I (God) have commanded you…” (See Deuteronomy 6), it would have an impact.

Truly, our society today makes a mockery out of God’s commandments. They are what the passage on Deuteronomy is talking about. Nearly every sitcom on TV today idolizes sexuality outside of marriage and outside of heterosexual relationships. Where is the instruction in that media of “Thou shalt not commit adultery?” One commentator said that in one evening of prime time television 12 murders took place, 4 of which were by the protagonists in the story line. The video games are produced in such a way that each player is rated by how many “kills” he has. What ever happened to “thou should not kill?” Materialism is the theme of numerous shows on TV with increasingly intense subject matter. What ever happened to “thou shalt not covet?” Parents are treated in many shows, especially the fathers, as bumbling idiots. It’s the children who always seem to know best today. Whatever happened to “honor your mother and father” because this is right in God’s eyes? I could continue with each commandment about idolatry, lying, stealing, and keeping the Sabbath. When was the last time you saw a TV sitcom family in Church? Truly, all the forces of our culture are aligned against us “training up our children in the way they should go.”

When we eliminate God from our cultural milieu we allow our own depravity to shine through. We raise children who have no respect, no self-discipline, and completely focused on self-gratification. R. C. Sproul put it this way, “…when a man’s thoughts are devoid of God, his life is characterized by not just a touch of unrighteousness but a fullness of unrighteousness that touches every part of his life. …The greedy person is self-centered, seeking to amass for himself things that he would rob from other people. Such a person has a hostile attitude to his fellow man, for he will stop at nothing for his own private gain. The greedy man’s thoughts are void of God. When we take God out of the mind, there is nothing to restrain the human heart and the human spirit in their lust for power and for greed.”