I recently read an article about some religious homeschool families who raised perfect little children. However, when those perfect little children became adults they left their faith and all of that "perfection" behind. What happened? Well, in many of those cases they sheltered them too much and when they got out into the world they could not handle it. Of course, there were other causes in some of those cases, but I want to focus on this one today. When I think of this incredible challenge to fathers I am reminded of one of my favorite Mark Twain stories, The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg. If you have never read it you might find it enlightening. The short of it was that there was a town known for its honesty, in fact, it was proud of its honesty. The problem was that they had raised an entire generation that had never had the opportunity to be dishonest except to themselves. A man who was mistreated by some of these haughty people found a way to get even by putting a temptation in their path that brought them all down. The said thing was that if they had actually been honest they would not have fallen to the temptation.
We know that after our children are grown and out of our homes the devil will attack them. I remember the first few weeks after leaving home for college. Mom and dad were not there to say get up and go to class or to church, etc. How will our children handle those decisions? We have to allow them to be tempted just like our perfect loving Heavenly Father allows us to be tempted. We need to provide a way of escape. If we have taught and trained our children we have equipped them with the ability to face a temptation and know the way of escape.