Playing Russian Roulette With Your Children

Playing Russian Roulette With Your Children

For some reason, the goal of higher education and having a career never appealed to me when I was young even though I attended public schools most of my childhood. When the other girls were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up, all I could think about was wanting to be a wife and a mother. I did attend college, however, because this is what young women were and are supposed to do. I attended a Christian college but I was not knowledgeable enough in the Word to know whether or not what I was learning was, in fact, biblically accurate. I do know that most Christian colleges seem to start out fairly solid biblically but then gradually grow lukewarm. I wasn’t steeped in humanism and leftist policies that most students are today, thankfully.

One of the first characteristics listed in Romans 1 (where we are given the progression of people rejecting the Lord and participating in evil) is the lack of thankfulness. “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21). Dennis Prager wrote an article entitled Leftism Eradicates Character. “One of the prerequisites of good character—as well as of happiness—is gratitude, and leftism is rooted in ingratitude…When you send your child to college, you are not only playing Russian roulette with their values. You are playing Russian roulette with their character and the way they will treat you…Young people who are transformed into leftists [in college] almost always become less kind, less happy, and more angry.”

There are Christian parents who I know personally that this has happened to with their children. They sent their children off to colleges, even supposedly “Christian” colleges, and their children turned away from their faith and all that they were taught growing up. These mothers mourn their decision and are heartbroken with the change in their children. If there is no greater joy to have your children walking in truth (3 John 4), there must be no greater sorrow to have your children walk away from the truth.

Dennis Prager shared the story on his radio program last week about a mother whose daughter came home as a “man” with a beard and low voice. This daughter was miserable, depressed, unthankful, and her mother was in complete shock. Her once cheerful and outgoing daughter had her breasts removed, pumped full of hormones, and all of this happened without her mother’s knowledge. This is shameful!

College children who have turned away from the ways of the Lord and everything good are instead taught to worry about everything: the planet, their rights, their entitlements, and all the things that keep them in a continual state of unthankfulness. We are to dwell on the lovely and the good. We are to be thankful for all the blessings the Lord has given us, especially the salvation of our souls, yet most young people are being taught to hate Christianity and all those who teach it.

The Bible is clear in its warnings about sending our children to godless places. We are told that bad company corrupts good morals. We are warned about false teachers in almost every book in the New Testament. We are told to “not be equally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:16). We are told to walk with the wise.

Jesus is the One who gives us joy. Happiness is a product of joy. Without Jesus, there is little true happiness or joy. Knowing that Jesus loves us and paid the penalty for our sins is plenty to be thankful about. Out of thankfulness springs joy. A thankful heart can’t be joyless. The Truth of God’s Word brings thankfulness and joy. Nothing about God is taught in most colleges and if it is, it is twisted and corrupt. These college students think they will find happiness by participating in the evil deeds of the world but they won’t. All they will find is disappointment and sorrow. Are you sure you want to play Russian roulette with your children?

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8

21 thoughts on “Playing Russian Roulette With Your Children

  1. Hi, Lori, thank you for the insight. My question is, what kind higher education would you suggest? If the child does not want to be a Pastor for example and attend a Bible/Pastoral College, if they have a different set of spiritual gifts.

  2. Reading this article reminds me of how thankful I am that my husband never allowed the option for our children to go to collage, Christian or otherwise! I received some pressured, by my brother-in-law’s wife to put our daughter in collage. I told her that isn’t our plan for her. I am truly grateful to my husband for his firm headship! Look at the heartbreak the LORD has delivered us from!

    I’ve watched every one of my nieces, that have attended collage, turn their backs and walk away from their Christian upbringing! It’s heart breaking!!! ?

  3. I believe only those who want to be doctors or lawyers (those who will be able to pay back the massive amount of debt they will accrue and need their education to become what they want to become) should attend colleges. The first two years, they can go to a local community college for far less money and continue to live at home. Then pray about what college for them to attend. There are a handful of good Christian colleges left and if they are going to make good money, it’s worth it for them to attend these. Most students end up never using their degree and having large amounts of debt. Trade schools are good, too.

  4. My question is: How do you deal with this problem on a practical level, as eighteen-year-olds are technically adults and are making their own decisions? I can see removing the pressure to attend college, but forbidding college seems like it’s just asking for a power struggle.

    Thanks, Lori. I still deal with the “if you go to college you’re a success, if you don’t, you’re a failure” pressure from my parents and their generation (and my own!).

  5. I believe it’s directing the children in the right direction from a young age. If they know the cost of college and if the parents didn’t save up the thousands upon thousands needed to pay for it, you can talk to them about the Bible’s exhortations on debt and how it can affect their future, especially if they don’t have a job after college that will pay enough to pay off the debt. Just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. We walk on a narrow path and must judge everything by the Word of God not by the world’s standards.

  6. Sadly, ingratitude seems to permeate all segments of society nowadays, even those who claim to be Christians. It is obvious that most still have one foot planted very firmly in the World and are desperate not to remove it. Thus the insistence on sending their children unprotected into the lion’s den of worldly institutions the primary goal of which is to break them down and destroy their faith.

    The fact that the church today has deliberately neglected to prepare both parents and their children for this inevitable spiritual war is a major reason for its utter ineffectiveness against the poisonous secular culture.

  7. I agree. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Then when you try to warn them, they mock you…sounds oddly familiar.

  8. Currently I plan to have my kids do college at home for the majority of their college education. We will probably use Unbound where they will take college courses and transfer to a school for their last year (a vetted one). Doing college at home will be cheaper than community college and we can start them early so they’ll be done with their college education by around 19 or so.

  9. Great post, and I concur, college is largely unnecessary, for both genders, but especially for women. It is a massive business, and gives little of value. It also presents severe and dangerous threats to a child’s potential virtue and wisdom. Marxism, hedonism, drugs, alcohol, and all kinds of other snares are present in college.

    Long ago, Lincoln had 1 year of 2nd grade formal education, and he had 4 basic habits, which were free, which allowed him to become an intellectual titan, superior to 99% of today’s college graduates. Today’s college graduates will boast of their technology, but that is because they are ahistorical, and don’t realize that Egypt, Greece, and Rome were all technological power house, and are now in ruins. This proves technology is not at all the necessary characteristic of a successful society, it is virtue and wisdom which make societies great, and colleges severely debilitate both qualities, quite often.

    Lincoln’s 4 basic free habits, which anyone can use to get anything they wish in life were:
    1) Never watched television (average American watches 9 years)
    2) Never used psychotropic drugs. (70 million Americans are on psychotropic drugs)
    3) Never viewed pornography (70% of all online clicks are for porn, according to TIME magazine)
    4) Read voraciously of the Bible, the classics, and history. (Knowledge of the Bible, Classics, and history are at all time lows in America currently)

    Alia tentande via est
    A New Way Must be tried.

  10. You might want to look into the state of the legal field before you push going to law school and paying off debt. Try things like “should I go to law school” or “Is law school a good risk”.
    Here is another resource.

    I’ll list a top school and a bottom school. You can see how the price is almost the same, but the chance at a good job is way different. No good job, no pay back the loans. Got to be best in your class to get into the schools that will get you “big Law”.

    https://www.lstreports.com/schools/stanford/

    https://www.lstreports.com/schools/thomasjefferson/

  11. Monte, love your insights here.

    When I speak with individuals who are overweight, fat, or obese, my first assumption is they drink soda. 99% of the time, I am right. If you do nothing else for your health: stop. drinking. soda. It makes the ph of your body acidic, has an unbelievable sugar dosage. Both of these elements combined skyrocket likelihood of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, …

    Similarly, when I speak with individuals who have time constraints, even if the claim is due to families, job hours, commutes, my first assumption is they watch TV. Same thing. 99% of the time, it is used to placate the kids, or to unwind from work. The truth is that it steals minutes which become hours from the lives of those who consume its content. Its content, in case anyone is watching, it abhorrent. From the ‘news’ to entertainment, it is all pure programming. 1984 on full display.

    Unplug from the world. Plug into the Word.

  12. What about parents who have simply no choice but to send their children to school? Also, what about Christian Colleges which quite a few fundamental families send their children to, and have very strict rules.

  13. Dear Lori, my name is Katrin and I am following you on Facebook for quite a while . I am from Germany and I am a born again Christian . I have two daughters and my husband ( unbeliever) is not living with us . GOD is faithful and I am praying that HE will bring him back. Nevertheless I have a question and you are maybe able to answer. I am a home mom and my children are going to a public school. In Germany it is by law that you have to bring them to school. That really gives me a hard time and of course I am praying and also that GOD will open a door for us so that I can homeschools them. If I leave them at home I would defenitly break the law . What can I do in this situation ? Donyou have a suggestion also with the word of God? Blessings and hope to hear from you. Katrin

  14. Hi Katrin, It’s tragic when the government interferes with raising children. It’s not their place to do so but since you cannot homeschool, pray with your children every day before they go to school. Pray out loud that they will put on the full armor of the Lord, that they will be protected from evil, and remain strong in Him. Read the Bible to them daily and speak about Jesus and what all He has done for them often. Have Bible verses written out and placed around your home. Pick out a Bible verse for them to memorize each week in order for them to hide God’s Word in their hearts so they won’t sin against Him. And remember, greater is HE who is in you than he who is in the world!

  15. Cover your children in prayer, speak to them often about the Lord, read the Bible to them daily, and have them memorize Scripture. Christian colleges that aren’t lukewarm are the way to go but they are very expensive. You must count the cost!

  16. Parents do not “owe” their children college. If the kid wants to go, let him or her pay for it (and refuse to co-sign or abet their borrowing to go).

    Trade school is a good option. A good plumber or electrician can set up their own business and be making good money while their classmates are still living in their parent’s basements.

    Another good option is the military. My 4 able-bodied children (one of the 5 is disabled) all enlisted after high school (they were homeschooled and the services were happy to have them).

    After separating from the service, they used their veteran’s benefits to pay for college. They also had 4-to-7 years to grow up and get their heads on straight between high school and college.

  17. We homeschooled our sons and then we kept them local for college. I do not regret that we did that. However, at the ages of 28 and 31 they are still unmarried. Being in the environment of many young ladies in their age range seems to have come and gone. I do wonder if they had gone to a college where they also lived on campus, would they have found their wives by now and because we made that decision, are their chances of marriage as slim as they feel and are now. I have prayed all of their lives about being blessed with Godly wives. Not sure if that is God’s plan any more.

  18. I want to try to reassure you, Sheila. We did a poll in the chat room of where the women met their husbands. College was way down on the list. Out of all of my friends who went to college, only me and one other friend met our husbands there. Neither of my daughters met their husbands at college and one of my sons didn’t. God doesn’t need us going into $1,000 of debt to find our spouses. It seems more and more young people are having a hard time finding a spouse because of feminism, in my opinion. Marriage and having children aren’t goals for most young women these days,s sadly.

  19. Around age 12, when children become a youth, and then at 18, when they leave home, children are at natural developmental stages where they are more inclined to question their parents, upbringing, etc. It’s really a bad idea for either of those ages to be when a parent suddenly drops a child from a relatively sheltered environment into one full of new people and ways of thinking. If your child has had a more sheltered experience, you are wise to take caution. Your child will be in a natural seeking mode with perhaps limited skills on how to filter new experiences through a Christian worldview, faith intact. Homeschooled children often enter public schools in middle school after a very sheltered elementary experience, and I noticed as a (100% scholarship funded) teacher that they struggled to make the sorts of wise friend and behavior choices that Christian children who were used to public school had learned by degrees and through many years of counsel by parents from a young age. Clearly the Lord has instilled in those children and families a different level of faith, skill set and purpose in the Body, and if your child was not crafted the same way then he or she does need to go a different direction. There is always the chance your child will do their own thing anyway as a “late bloomer.”

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