Unfortunately, though we didn’t change our lives the way you should. I had quit doing drugs but I had substituted it with alcohol. I had already been drinking heavily before but I managed to turn it up a notch, giving up beer for wine because wine had a higher alcohol content. We would go to church on Sunday and immediately upon arriving home we would open a bottle of wine and start drinking all Sunday afternoon. I would like to say that no one in the church knew about this but if I really think about it they must have known, but no one ever confronted us about it (yet another problem in the church and yet another discussion for another article). I had shown up to Sunday school several times with a hangover from the night before and unless you are completely blind you can tell when someone is hung over. Eventually this marriage ended as well, again for reasons I won’t go into here.
The reason I have gone into great detail about my life is to point out the importance of having Christian friends. But they must be devoted Christians, not worldly Christians. When we become so involved with non-believers, or worldly believers more often than not they will influence our lives and not the other way around. I started going to church but because none of my “friends” were going and because I wanted to fit in, I stopped going. This is why we must pray for our children. Pray that God will put other devoted Christians in their path to help them along their way (Ecc 4:9-12).
My church is starting a mentor program where some of the adults make themselves available to be mentors to the youth. While this is a good idea I believe a better one is to select some of the older teens who are strong in their faith to become mentors. Kids relate better to other kids, not adults. They need kids their own age who are mature believers, walking in the way of Christ, that they can turn to. Kids that will hold them accountable. While it is the parent’s job to teach their kids we cannot be naive to the fact that our children don’t confide in us about everything going on in their lives. We must pray that our children make Godly friends, and we must pray for those friends as well. But not only our children but for us as well. Seek out Godly friends, look for an accountability partner, hold someone else accountable.
