The Importance Of Our Example

Several years ago, some congregations of the Lord’s church began to explore why they were losing so many of their young people. One congregation discovered a correlation between the interest the parents manifested in their assembling practices and the faithfulness of their children. They discovered that the greatest impact on children came from their parents — not from the preacher, elders or Bible class teachers. The statistics were very alarming and revealing.

When both parents were spiritually minded and active in assembling, 93% of the children remained faithful. However, if only one of the parents was faithful, that number dropped to 73%. When both parents were only reasonably active and faithful in their worship and study, only 53% of the young people remained faithful.

Please carefully note this last statistic:

When both parents attended infrequently, the percentage of children who remained faithful to the Lord dropped to 6%.

Beloved, our interest and attendance in worship says a great deal to our children. It tells them about our faith, values and priorities. Our children going to heaven depends largely on our faithfulness to the Lord and His church by our example (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:2-7).

Question: "Do we want our children to go to heaven?" We answer that question every time we assemble, do we not? Think about it!

Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets

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