We’ll call him “Fred”. Fred took his wife out to a movie one night. The movie was not what one would call “wholesome” and was filled with all kinds of immorality and sexuality (rated R for a reason). Fred is what we might call a “man’s man” in the world and would love this kind of movie, however, during one of the more explicit scenes, Fred noticed a mother and her young son (probably about 6) sitting across the aisle. The boy was actually covering his own eyes! The whole thing made Fred nervous and uncomfortable. After the movie was done and all were exiting the theater, Fred approached the woman and in a style less than couth, told her, “Lady, you have no business bringing your boy to a movie like this.”
All would have been fine if that was where the story had ended. But if had ended there, I wouldn’t be writing this story. As Fred exited and was in the main waiting area, he felt a sudden strong surge from behind and before he knew it, he was on the floor with someone slapping him upside the back of his head. He got turned around only to have his glasses flung off his face to some far corner of the large foyer. All he knew was that he had been taken down by a woman. Eventually, his ears adjusted to hear accusations such as “How DARE you tell me what’s good for my own son!” and “Don’t tell ME how to parent!” etc etc.
Apparently Fred’s comment struck a deep chord in her. Basically he was assaulted for telling her that it’s not responsible parenting to prematurely defile a young boys conscience and spirit with the filth of the world. What provoked such rage in this woman? Parenting has a way of revealing the deepest and most sensitive/personal parts of the person. Whatever a parent allows or doesn’t allow speaks loudly of what that person’s own personal moral convictions are. This woman had no problem bringing in a 6 year old boy to an R rated movie. Nothing struck her as wrong about this. She was passing along her amoral beliefs (as in lacking morals) to her son simply by bringing him there with her. It seems the boy knew more about right and wrong than she did. For Fred, whole scene innately resounded as an alarm screaming “NOT OK! NOT OK!” even though he may be little concerned about righteousness himself.
Parents have the unbelievable duty of acting “as God” to their children and we are held responsible for the way we stewarded their little hearts and souls. Did we lead them toward God? Did we instill a hunger in them for God and a godly lifestyle? Did we accurately portray the mother and father heart of God to them? Parents have an awesome responsibility – even awful in the sense that it we should be filled with awe at what God has entrusted to broken human beings.
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