CURRENT SERIES TITLE "Happy Homes & Happy Living"
Lesson #10 Happy Home are Christian Homes

Recently I talked with a father who told me that his entire life was a wreck. He had reared four children to adolescence. One of the girls had been seduced into a life of immorality and at the age of sixteen had left home. No trace of her had been found. One of the boys, at the age of fourteen, had been convicted of leading a bunch of juvenile gangsters on a stealing expedition and had been confined to a state penal institution. As I listened to this sad tale of woe from the distraught man, I wondered within my mind what had been the cause. I questioned him closely.

I learned that while the children were small there had been difference of opinion over the rearing of them. When the father wanted to correct them, the mother shielded them; then when the mother felt they needed chastising, the father opposed her and gave the children refuge. There had been nagging and quarrelling all through the years. I learned that they had never eaten a meal in peace. Either some of the children were angry, or else the parents were. In some instances, they had refused to speak to each other, and had gulped their food down and hastened from the house.

Then I also learned that the parents had never taken the children to church. Occasionally when the boys and girls were small, they had attended a few times with children in the neighborhood who had asked them, but ordinarily the parents had taken the position that the youngsters ought to sleep on Sunday morning, and had refused to get them ready. And now those parents were growing old. One daughter was ruined, one son was in the state reform school, and the other two children
would stand up and curse the parents to their face. What a home! What a dark future! What a sad picture!

God's Word says, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh, reap corruption; and he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit, reap life everlasting (Galatians 6 :7, 8). You need not think that you must wait until you reach the next world before you start your reaping. The parents I mentioned had already found the harvest of sorrow: they had thrust in the painful sickle of life and had
gathered in the sheaves of anguish and broken hopes. Their tears represented only the vintage from their hearts where the ripened clusters of their own neglect were being trampled by the feet of destiny. You can't do wrong and get by!

The happy homes are Christian homes. Let me read you one of the most precious promises ever made. Listen to it! Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thy house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord (Psalm 128). Did you ever hear a more
gracious promise? Remember, that this is the Word of the Lord.

In view of what the Bible teaches, I say this day, that those who spend their time gallivanting around upon the Lord's Day, seeking only for pleasure, who bundle their children up and take them upon vain jaunts around the country, the while they neglect the worship of God, are only preparing themselves for a harvest of sadness in the future. I know that there are some of you who scoff at the church. I know you deride those who arise earlier upon the Lord's Day, that they might get the family ready and be at the service when it begins. But one of these days you'll learn that there was something to it all. For many of you, the lesson will come too late! It pays to serve God!

I talked to a wonderful mother not long ago. Her husband food for the household and nourishment for those who dwelt
therein. Too, beneath the spreading boughs rest and shade and protection from the storms abode. Isn't that a welcome picture of Christian children?

They, too, bring light and joy to the home. How sad those homes which have never known the tread of childish feet or the laughter of childish lips. How dark the prospect of those who grow old without ever having known the gay freedom of youth, the spontaneous gladness, the overwhelming joy of those who are free from cares of life. But our children also serve as nourishers of the home. They join with us in making it a happy place in which to exist, but they also share the burdens of the hour. Of all those with whom I have ever worked, none provide me quite the satisfaction as my own son. I cherish the hours we spend together in worthwhile attempt, and regret that the day must come when such association will be broken up.

Our children provide for us, also, the protection against the storms of age and doubt. They give us something to work for, something for which to labor, and pray and serve. Truly, "children are an heritage of the Lord." Let us then rear them to serve Him who permitted us to have them. Let us not rob God of the lives of those who belong to Him as much as to us. To do so will bring sorrow and suffering, heartache and anguish, to ourselves and to those whom we love.

And I would speak a word now to the children. You may think that your father and mother are cranks. You may think that the church is too narrow in its concepts. You may rebel and kick against the goads which urge you forward in the right path. But if you continue in arrogant rebellion, you will pay the penalty.

I've known young people to refuse to obey their parents, and I've seen them forsake the church because it would not tolerate their evil companionships. And I've watched them get paid back in their own coin. I've seen them establish homes with some of the irresponsible, unconverted ones, which the parents have opposed, and then I've watched them as they came creeping back home to those parents, admitting that they had made a mistake in refusing to listen.

The way of happiness is the way of obedience. "This is the right way: walk ye in it." There's no short cut to happiness; no royal road by which you can go as in the fairy tales of old. You must work, labor and serve, for in these things you shape a career which is solid and substantial. Bring happiness to the home of your parents by being obedient to them. It will pay you to do it!

Lesson #11: "Plants and Cornerstones" will follow in the next mailing.
"Lessons From Yesterday" is compiled by Dwain R. Stoops
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