Education and Investments

One night following a youth group activity, as the youth leaders sat around vacant eyed and tried to “decompress”, I wondered out loud what made the difference between the “good” kids and the “challenging” ones.

We talked about how about half of the kids went to private Christian schools.  But, those kids were just about as troubled as their peers in public education.  And the home schooled types?  Well, they were better educated but still fell within the questionable ratio of “good” to “challenged”.

My lawyer’s wife, and good friend, murmured that maybe the difference lay outside of a schooling attribute.  So we discussed Christian parents, versus one Christian parent, versus no Christian parents.  Again, no success attributing the kids behavior with this.

About the same time we all had the same idea, parental involvement.  We knew all of the families and carefully analyzed this attribute with the kids’ behaviors.

Interestingly, no matter what the schooling situation, no matter the religious bent of the parents, the only consistent attribute of the behaved kids was the families which spent time together as families!

Isn’t that interesting?  Yes, religion does come into play in so far as to where the child will finally end up.  But, the time you take with your kids is actually the difference between your child succeeding and failing (at least in early life).

In the following 12 years, armed with this information, I now can see where the kids I work with are in respect to their family life and time.  For a few, I have been able to pick up the pieces due to an absent father and just invest some fun times with them.  The changes in their lives are tremendous.

Are there youth in your church where you can make a difference?  A motherless young lady, a fatherless young man?  Can you free up a little time to include them for a few hours a week in your life?  Nothing special.  Maybe a picnic, fishing, game night at your home, whatever.  Something that will let them know that they are special and cared for?

It is an investment you will not be sorry for…..