God rightly said, "Sow to the wind, reap the whirlwind." When I was a boy, I was instructed that if I were to get in trouble at school, I would be in trouble at home. That was not "just talk" from my Dad. It was a fact. I can still feel the results, and can still hear that old belt coming through the loops as Dad was removing it from his pants.

I was brought up in the 60's and 70's "hippie era". Can you remember that far back? We hated authority, the establishment, our parents, and everything that was good and godly. A strange thing took place during that time. It seems that the Lord sent a visitation that resulted in many young people getting saved. Many of these young men are now pastoring great churches. However, we are now between 45 and 55 years old. Our children are now teenagers and young adults. What I have noticed in my twenty years of pastoring is that these saved parents still have a "hippie"' mentality problem with rebelling against authority. Let me illustrate. When little Junior gets in trouble at the Christian school, Dad and Mom are ready to defend their little "heavenly devil". They, unlike my Dad, must tell Junior before he goes to school, "If those mean teachers do anything to you, just let us know and we will tend to them." This is the spirit of the anti-Christ. It is destroying the confidence the children have in the church and Christian schools.

What I have found is that we don't have a child problem, we have a parent problem. Most kids will do what is required of them. However, when they know that their parents will bail them out, they "go for broke". Because of this, I have watched our Christian schools go from institutions of Christian education to institutions of reformation - trying to undo what the home has destroyed.

When was the last time you heard of a parent standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the pastor and principal after kicking their kid out of school. Instead, parents get mad and leave the church. It seems they think that their child's education is more important than his spirituality.

In the case of such homes the child will get neither an education nor spirituality. Now here is the scary part. These little rebellious punks will soon marry and have little ones who will no doubt end up in our Christian schools. Now that's scary, friend.

Christian parents had better wake up and back the authority m the church and Christian school. Because if you "sow to the wind," you will "reap the whirlwind."

Dr. Keith A. Gomez, Pastor

---