Foolhardy to let young sprouts go unweeded

The Minister of Youth in a Baptist church bulletin wrote the following note to parents: “Parents, please make it a priority to have your children with us on Wednesday nights at 6:15.  If your children have other friends who are not currently active in another church, do your best to bring them.  I am a firm believer that it is easier to reach children for Jesus Christ than older kids.  By the time they reach middle school, if Christ is not a priority in their lives, there is a strong possibility he never will be.  Then, when it’s too late, we wonder where we went wrong.”  

There has never been a truer statement.  By the time children reach 7-8 years of age, they have formed their moral foundation and will carry that value system forward throughout their lives.  When children reach teenage status, it is too late to change their moral values.

How soon can a child be saved? Charles Hadden Spurgeon wrote, “ as soon as children can learn evil, be assured that they can be competent under the teaching of the Holy Spirit to learn good.”  Spurgeon urged Sunday School teachers: “ Never go into your class with the thought that children cannot comprehend.  Children are capable of salvation.”  

A good example is Josiah.  When he became king of Jerusalem at age 8, he immediately began to seek God’s guidance and performed great works by his twelfth birthday.  

A person’s chances of being saved diminish rapidly with age. As people grow older and become more set in their attitudes, they increasingly resist the life-changing message of Christ.  Studies revealed that 95-percent of the people who receive Christ do so before age 25.  After the age of 35, only one person in 50,000 receives Christ; after 45 only one in 300,000; and after 75 only one in 700,000 is converted.  Hardening of the arteries and hardening of the heart go hand in hand.  

The writer of Ecclesiastes warned of the dangers of resisting salvation when one is young: “ Don’t let the excitement of being young cause you to forget your creator…Remember Him now while you are young, before the silver chord of life snaps, and the golden bowl is broken, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God.”

Evangelistic efforts are usually slanted toward adults at the expense of children.  This is inconsistent for in planting a garden, we would be foolhardy to let young sprouts go unweeded during the spring and expect an abundant harvest in the summer.

God cautioned the Israelites escaping from Egyptian bondage to “forget not the things your eyes have seen and teach them to your children and grandchildren.” Timothy became Paul’s protégé because he was taught the scriptures from childhood by his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois.

We have an awesome responsibility to bring up our children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.”  Jesus said, “Prevent not the children from coming to Me, for such is the Kingdom of God.”