This was the headline on Not the Bee: Op-ed: The story of the six-year-old who shot his teacher started LONG before he picked up the gun (Link below. Warning: terribly foul language.).
I watched the post-shooting video (the actual shooting was a few years ago, the video was recently released) of the little boy with the foulest mouth I ever heard out of a six-year-old. “Disrespectful” doesn’t touch it. He was in the classroom where he had badly wounded his first-grade teacher with a gun he openly admitted he had stolen from his mother. There were policemen and a teacher’s aide with him.
The social worker in me wondered what terrible things this little boy has encountered in life to make him so wicked at such a young age. The Christian in me thought immediately of the “Stubborn and rebellious son” of Deuteronomy 21:18-21 although these verses are not talking about a little boy. In the Bible he is described as “a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them.” When the parents take the young man to the elders they add, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”
The son in Deuteronomy 21 is sentenced to death because he is considered incorrigible, meaning he is seen as incapable of being corrected or reformed. I fear this is the future of this little boy who already loves death.
As I have been researching examples of people in the Bible who truly sacrificed and lived for future generations, the situation of this little boy struck me as absolutely evil. Who hates their child so much that they speak to him with an attitude and language that will cause others to avoid him at all costs? If it wasn’t his parents, where did he learn it?
As Christians, what we do to prepare and equip the next generation to live for the Lord is a responsibility we have before God. Even in difficult circumstances, we can do it.
Look at Timothy who was raised in a home with a believing mother and grandmother but an unbelieving father (Acts 16:1). Apparently, his mother and grandmother were so committed to living their faith and so diligent in teaching Timothy that, by God’s grace, Paul recognizes the “genuine faith” he has as an adult (2 Timothy 1:5).
That little boy in North Carolina and Timothy of the Bible come from two distinctly different ways of life. But, each of them was directly influenced by what they have been exposed to by the people closest to them; their families. That little boy needs a Lois and Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5) in his life to point him to the Lord.
What example are we setting for our children and grandchildren with our words and actions? Is God honored and people built up or is evil honored and are the people around us torn down?
The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Proverbs 29:15
https://cl.notthebee.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-fbYQ
