The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Mark 9:42-48, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,
44 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.
45 “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell,
46 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.
47 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,
48 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”

What causes kids to spiritually stumble? One of the saddest things that all-too-often takes place in a child’s life is the mishandling of the child by a church leader. Sometimes the pastor, who is called to be one of the child’s spiritual leaders will misguide the child into realms of sin and spiritual mismanagement.

Ministers and church leaders, like parents, are called upon to lead children in right paths –paths that lead to the LORD Jesus.

Others, who are equally responsible (if not more so!) are the birth-parents of the child. Whether the child is the parental birth-child of its natural parents, or of adoptive parents, it is the parental responsibility to “train up a child in the way he should go” (Prov. 22:6).

Maltreatment of a child virtually assures training the child in a wrong way. It is true that many wrongly-trained children overcome bad training and grow up to be well-trained, well-established men and women. Still, it is something not to be taken for granted. Remember the words of Solomon: “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).

Some readers of these words will assert: “It’s been too long now for my child to be changed. Yet, it is never too late — at least, this side of death, it is not. As long as life is alive, there is hope in the child. Give that lost one the Hope that exists in our LORD Jesus!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom