The Rogue

My husband recently purchased several full grown laying hens. These are very pretty red chickens and they are good layers. The trouble with these hens is that they don’t know how to behave. Our chickens are free range so they aren’t kept in a pen. And these won’t stay at the barn like the other chickens that have been raised on our farm do. They roam everywhere. They take off alone, which puts them in great danger of being caught by predators. And when the other chickens are going to roost in the barn, you’ll still see these chickens wondering around in the dark. They dig in the garden and the flower beds. They poop on the sidewalk and the front porch. They are very social and are in the middle of whatever you are doing outside, including putting up Christmas decorations! I told my husband that these chickens just have not been raised right. They are rogue chickens and they don’t know how to act!

The same applies to people. If children aren’t raised right, they won’t know how to act either. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) It is very important for us as parents to help guide our children in the right direction. Children are so impressionable. They look to us for an example. So not only do we need to teach them, we also have to practice what we teach…and I’m sure you’ve heard that before! But it is true. We need to be going to Church together as a family. We need to be teaching them about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We need to be reading the Bible and praying together. We need to be giving them a firm foundation in the Lord. This in turn gives them hope. It lets them know how much they are loved and that they are never alone. That they can always turn to the Lord in times of need. It teaches them to be thankful to a loving God, who provides for them. And it teaches them to glorify and praise the Lord.

Proverbs 20:11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.

Psalms 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

2 Timothy 3:15-17 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Psalms 53:2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.