Smoke on the Water

This morning as I took my boys to school I took our normal route down the curvy May Road. As we passed by my uncle's farm Cooper told Dru about how the pond looked like it was on fire due to the haze over it. I chimed in and said "Yeah, it looks like "Smoke on the Water" doesn't it?" Cooper just looked at me with this puzzled look as if he had no clue what I was hinting at. (For those that feel like Cooper, "Smoke on the Water" is a classic rock song from the 1972 album Machine Head by the band Deep Purple. YouTube it if you still are lost and you'll recognize the tune!) What surprised me is the fact that Cooper didn't remember hearing that song at some point. We occasionally play the "Name that Song and Band" game while listening to classic rock. He often surprises me with his recall of songs and bands, although Lynyrd Skynyrd is his default answer when he doesn't know the band. I joked about how I had let them down and failed them because they didn't know "Smoke on the Water" but they know "Simple Man" and "Welcome to the Jungle." For them to grow up to appreciate classic rock and roll I will need to do a better job of exposing them to a wider range of songs and artists.

When it comes to parenting, we can feel like we've let our kids down. As parents we watch our kids succeed in certain areas and we couldn't be prouder. But as it is with most parents, we rarely see the successes as vividly as we do the failures. We often question what we could have done differently to help our children avoid their failure. Often times we feel some blame for their failure. We think we should have done more or tried harder to instill the values, information, or habits that our kids need to succeed. Probably the greatest area we feel like we should do or should have done more is in matters of faith.

Faith, like every other area of life, is an area of life where all we can do is pour into our kids
and wait to see how they turn out. No, parents aren't responsible if their kids grow up and have a foul mouth that would put a sailor to shame. But parents are responsible for their own language and what their kids hear them say. No, parents aren't responsible if their kids grow up to be lazy and unmotivated. But parents are responsible for the work ethic and values they portray to their kids. And no, parents aren't responsible if their kids grow up and decide to leave their faith behind. But yes, parents are responsible to live out a godly example of what it means to live a life of faith before their kids. 

If a parent wants a child to grow up and have a vibrant relationship with the God of the Universe, then those kids need to see their parents living out a similar relationship. If parents demonstrate a lackadaisical attitude toward worship, Bible study, prayer, and service in the Kingdom of God, then you can imagine what kind of attitude their kids will have toward those things. Now I'm not one of those preachers that will tell you that if you do as Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it", then your kids will always turn out to be men and women of faith. But what I am saying is that if you as a parent don't set the example of what it means to be a man or woman of faith, chances are your kids won't turn out to be one.

My encouragement to parents is to decide today what kind of example you plan to live out for your kids when it comes to faith. Will you set an example that would help draw them into a deeper relationship with God? Or will you let them see an example that places no importance on a vibrant relationship with God? The choice is yours.


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