Moral Compass for Our Children

What will our children become?

Let’s leave science for a moment.

I listen to the news every evening. I call it the Rape and Murder Report. Does the media really think we want to know everyone that was shot in a drive by, or every motor vehicle accident that maimed or killed someone, or every grocery robbery? Do they really think we want to know every detail of Jon Benet, or Anna Nicole…over and over and over again?

Where are the stories of the young men and women who worked on a new invention or were accepted to medical school or performed some fine humanitarian project? Or are Paris and Britany our model of what we want our next generation to become? I am certain that we all agree that they are not. We want our children and, indeed, our grandchildren to understand wisdom and thereby to have a MORAL COMPASS.

This moral compass finds its foundation in instruction and example. Solomon is very clear on this. His proverbs were in his time acknowledged in the known world as a Divine gift of wisdom to mankind. They have been borrowed by every subsequent emperor and sage and philosopher and rewritten and quoted for the past 2500 years.

His primary tenets were:

v     that we should know “wisdom and instruction” and that wisdom is obtained by instruction.

v     this wisdom will guide us in our practice of justice, judgement, and equity, to make right decisions in our lives.

Youth is the learning age, catches at instructions, receives impressions, and retains what is then received. It is therefore of great consequence that the mind “be then seasoned well, nor can it receive a better tincture” than from Solomon’s proverbs. Youth is rash, and heady, and inconsiderate.  “Man is born like the wild ass’s colt”, and therefore needs to be broken by the restraints and managed by the rules.

There is indeed a right and a wrong, a good and an evil. Our culture and media strives to make everything a “shade of gray”. Our culture says that everything could be, given the circumstances, acceptable, such as murder, robbery. Our culture strives to justify all acts of inhumanity and violence and the legal system has thusly convinced many juries of the “innocence” of the perpetrators of these acts. There are, therefore, no consequences for our deeds.

So what are our children to think?
How can they know what is right and what is wrong? The answer is 2500 years old. They can only learn by instruction and example. They are not getting this from the culture or media, so they must get it from the parents, churches and synagogues. Our culture has gone to great lengths to eliminate and override these influences. Nevertheless, it is ONLY from the instruction given by good and godly men and women that our children will obtain a MORAL COMPASS.

I have been working for many years with a small youth camp located in Marble Falls, Texas. It is a nondenominational Christian camp that has changed more lives of children and parents alike in one year than all the government programs have in their entire history of operation. The teaching and love and caring the children receive in this outdoor adventure setting of Texas redirects and reunites entire families. Lives are changed there, forever.

The name of the camp is Camp Peniel, which means “I met God face to face.” Take a look at their website, www.camppeniel.org. There are numerous other such camps all around the world and for more information, take a look at www.ccca.org, for listings.

Let’s eschew cynicism and apathy. Let’s not neglect the instruction of our future generations. We can effect changes in the lives of our children and grandchildren. We can override the message of our culture and we can instill a MORAL COMPASS in these little ones. Let’s make the effort. These camps are operated on a shoestring by men and women who are committed to helping children and their families. Help them with this mission if you are so inclined. Send your children and grandchildren and support these camps with your gifts.

“Your children and grandchildren will call you Blessed”.