1 Timothy 6:3-5 English Standard Version (ESV)

³ If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, ⁴ he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, ⁵ and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Picking up along the lines established recently parents are the primary source of early education. What parents decide to teach their children is a parental right and I shall not interfere. When it comes to the standards of teaching godliness we must follow the teachings of Jesus. To this end it has to be noted how Jesus loved the children and warned elders about their responsibilities in raising them to know Him.

Matthew 19:14 English Standard Version (ESV) but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Babes in Christ may be old by worldly standards yet they must be educated in the same manner. It is necessary to instill in them the virtues of godliness. Teach love, mercy, grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to speak truth and enact God’s will in their lives.

Those who come to Christ of a certain age need no lessons on the depravity of man. They escaped the depravity. Children who have not come to know Jesus and the great love that God offers should not be taught about the depravity of man least they test those lessons for themselves.

A mind that is not deprived of the truth is less likely to engage in depraved behavior. Less likely is no guarantee that temptations might get the better of them. We are human after all. While we would like to protect our “babes” in Christ, there has to come a time when we all have to stand or fall along the paths we walk.

Micah 6:8 English Standard Version (ESV) He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Once the bible stopped being used as primer in school, what taught us to be good? Who asked us to be good? What made us feel good about ourselves? It fell back on the family to show us our place and how to feel about ourselves. If negative reinforcements were used, children grew up feeling like they were bad and that led to bad behavior because the truth still applies even in the absence of education.

Proverbs 23:6-8 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁶ Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,
⁷ for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.“Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
⁸ You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.

Lessons of man’s fallen nature will not be taught. We learn about bad behavior by succumbing to our base nature and if we are told to enjoy life without understanding that life without justice, mercy and humility leads to a cycle of disappointments.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁰ And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. ¹¹ Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

A life lived to learn this lesson is a life wasted.