Adult crime during the past year has diminished significantly, but tragically the overall statistics are alarming due to a dramatic increase in teen crime. Gangs and drugs fuel this plague among the young and it is time for parents to assume their god-given role of leadership and give their children the proper defenses to resist the pull into drugs and gangs. You might believe that these are new problems--only faced by parents today. The truth is that evil has sought to entice the young with his criminal con for centuries and the Old Testament book of Proverbs has just the right information to help our children resist. But we need to know what it says and how to relate it to today’s needs.

How does a drug pusher come on to a teenager? As parents we might want to believe that our kids will never be exposed to the tentacles of the drug octopus, but an industry that grosses billions a year will do everything it can to ensnare our kids. Putting our heads in the sand like an ostrich will not protect our kids. We need to get in there and give them solid persuasive reasons why they should never touch illicit drugs and we must also give them the right stuff to help them resist the temptation. The information we share on the next two Truth Encounters could save your children’s lives.

Modern ideas about the universe cause man to disappear in vast spaces of nothingness and light year distances. Evolution tries to persuade us that man is simply a sophisticated animal, but as we look up into the vastness of the starry heavens or as we gaze at the grandeur of a Colorado mountain sunset, we know that such beauty does not come into being by accident. God whispers to us in His creation and deep inside we remember that we were made to reflect His character. He built us to praise His name.

Modern evolution teaches brilliant young students that the universe is the product of matter times time times chance. Everything is the product of probability factors and there is no supreme intelligent being behind it all. Therefore, life has no design. It is an accident in the midst of chaos. Little wonder students lose their drive for learning. If everything is fundamentally unreasonable, why slug it out through college to train your mind in reason? Why not express the basic instincts?

We live in a high tech sophisticated world. Our grandfathers got up and read the Farmer’s Almanac to get the latest weather report. We check our smart phone and watch Doppler radar and satellite photographs of weather movements across the planet. Banging away at computer keys, rushing out to get the latest iPhone or digital gadget, do you ever wonder if the God of the Bible can keep up with all man’s technology? Are you ever attracted to trade in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for the new age force of Star Wars?

Building a house- it’s the center of the American dream. What would you think of someone who simply had a bunch of lumber dumped on a lot with wire and siding thrown in and they haphazardly begin to build. Foolishness! Then why do so many of us try to construct life and try to build our families without consulting the life Architect?

"Standing On The Promises" This is the way one of the great hymns of the faith begins, but some of you tried to stand on the promise of Proverbs 22:6, “train up a child in the way which he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it,” but one of your children as departed. As a parent you are filled with embarrassment and guilt. You tried so hard to raise godly children but their choices have moved them far from spiritual truth. Did God’s promise fail?

Where can we find a Dr. Spock that can give us the right information for raising kids in the 21st Century? As you face a culture where gangs slash at the vitals of our inner cities, where small towns have to infiltrate their high schools with under cover agents to control drugs, and where suicide and accidents due to alcohol abuse threaten our children’s lives, who do you turn to for answers?

We live in a society of extremes. On the one hand we have a total disregard of parental authority as children are taught to resist their parents and express their creative energy. On the other hand we have other groups who express the opposite extreme as young adults are never allowed to cut the apron strings. Isn’t it encouraging to know that the heavenly father as given us an instruction manual that can help us avoid extremes as we help our kids learn to live instead of living and learning.

If you are committed to raising godly children, this study on the Old Testament book of Proverbs will be strategic and irreplaceable in teaching your children to fight--and --win life's battles on their own. Is it still possible to raise godly children? How do we do it? Should we lock them up in a monastery- safe from the allures of the evil one, or should we hang loose and let them learn the facts of life by experimentation? These questions remind us of restrictive Victorians versus free loving hippies. Can we chart a better course?