Read
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children…
Deuteronomy 4:9
Reflect
A number of years ago, Emory University did a study that surveyed 600 Atlanta-area high school seniors and their parents regarding the use of drugs and alcohol. Not surprisingly, it found that parents tend to greatly underestimate how involved their children are in the use of various substances.
While the survey revealed that only 35 percent of parents believed their children had consumed alcohol in the past month, it also showed that 67 percent of the students confessed to drinking in the same month. And while just 3 percent of parents thought their children smoked marijuana, 28 percent of the seniors said they had smoked weed in the past 30 days.
While I haven’t seen any numbers like that this year, I would think that parents are just as blind to what their children are doing, and that probably at least that many students are engaging in substance use. (I did see one study that said that 17 percent of students abuse substances during the school day, and another survey of parents that showed that 68 percent of them believed their child’s campus to be completely drug free, and that 62 percent of them felt that none of their children’s friends drank, smoked marijuana or abused prescription drugs.) So why is there such a difference between the perception of parents and the reality of their children? There might be many, but to be sure, the parents didn’t know as much about their children as they thought they did.
Time spent with your children is vital, and these days there seems to be less and less time available for parents and children to spend time together. For example, while 84 percent of parents believe that it’s important to share family meals together, less than half of families actually do that. In the absence of quality time spent with their children, parents have become blind to their children’s behavior. More than that, so many parents don’t realize they’re modeling the behavior of substance abuse through their own overuse of alcohol and prescription drugs.
Moses commanded the children of Israel to never forget what the Lord had taught them in their journey through the wilderness, and to make sure to teach those things to their children and to their children’s children. We can’t just assume our own children will pick these things up by osmosis. We have to set the standard for our children by modeling it for them. We also need to take some time each day to introduce them to the Savior who has made the difference in our own lives, and to teach them how to be one of His disciples.
Reflection copyright © 2021 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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