As children, they are taken to church, where they hear the parts of the Christian message that their particular church embraces.
Although it is rare in our times, maybe they even receive some measure of religious instruction at home. Eventually, they leave home, and launch out into the world.
They face temptations that they have not faced before and give in to them.
Their lives might get out of control with the use of alcohol, and they might give in to sexual indulgence. At the least, they never read the Bible or make any attempt to develop a spiritual life. Most don’t even attempt to take what knowledge is at their disposal and form their own beliefs and convictions.
They don’t learn to think.
Maybe they travel to a foreign country.
Things are even worse there.
They begin to embrace the ideas to which they are exposed.
By the time they return home, they are further away from faith than before.
Along with their previous frivolous way of life, they now begin to be consumed with the demands of making a living in the workplace and the desire for a career and success.
Most of what they hear about Christianity is in a negative context.
If they go to church at all, they hear things that either make no sense to them or that they find offensive to the way they live.
They have no grasp of the Bible to compare with
what they hear.
The result is an attitude toward Christianity that is not only negative but also one that is rooted in a faulty sense of intellectual superiority.
The young also have a way of seeing right through the charade of those who profess the faith but don’t live the life.
What began as a vague, almost imperceptible doubt soon grows.
By slow and steady degrees, the doubt becomes most fixed in their minds.
In a twisted kind of way, the young men and women begin to hope their doubt is well founded.
Any reason that reinforces it is welcomed.
Doubt becomes greater, not based on evidence, but merely by dwelling in the mind.
This is certainly not always how it goes, but in general you could think of this scenario as the genesis of unbelief. This is not always the process, but generally speaking, it is the natural history of skepticism.
If you have carefully observed someone you know drifting into unbelief, you have probably seen something like this occur."
~William Wilberforce 1797
Praying for God's grace as we try to parent in a way that reflects a genuine, life-changing relationship with Christ...
Praying for our children...that God will capture their hearts in such a way that real transformation takes place...
*Happily sharing with We are THAT Family, Women Living Well, and Raising Homemakers.
