Monday again....

6:18...Husband and oldest are out the door, second oldest is running around getting ready and I have 12 minutes until I have to speak to anyone again. Such is life these days. It seems I will have one child home sick today. Again, such is life in a relatively big family.
I've been praying, of late ,a great deal about our children, not just mine, but the corporal body of our children. I see this trend towards moving away from the Lord as they get older. Young adults just old enough to be independent and just young enough to be stupid. It's the hardest age group I know of. The age when you are deciding what to be for the REST of your life, falling in love, deciding on who to date, will you date, getting married, does marrying a believer really matter, where to live, will Mom and Dad be that strong influence? Ugh...tough age. I would so not be twenty again for all the tea in China.
I think so many of us are capable of raising good kids. The the thing is, I don't want good kids. I want holy kids. Now how to you get there?
How do we not provoke our children to the point of being exasperated as the NIV puts it in Ephesians or to wrath as the KJV puts it? I don't know. I find myself looking to my older and wiser contemporaries who have kids in college and I find most of them weeping over their kids. I don't know the answer and I don't know any parent who does. It sometimes feels like uncharted waters here. Raising kids who stick to their faith when Mom and Dad are not looking seems to be few and far between.
My girlfriend Leslie puts it this way, "To raise a kid who does NOT share the testimony: I was raised in a Christian home, BUT..." We long to raise Christian kids who can make it with out the "BUT" in their testimony. No BUT I went to college and fell away, no BUT I married an unbeliever, no BUT I started drinking heavily or was enticed by cocaine...no BUT.
If we are truly raising our children, even in a wicked age, in the fear and admonition of the Lord, we are told that when they are older they will not depart from it. So it leaves me to wonder, what are we doing wrong?
"Raise up a child in the way he should go and when he is older, he will not depart from it." God's word never ever fails and is never ever un-true. So what are we missing?
My kids are still young enough that no one is in the "BUT" stage as of yet...but it won't be long before their faith will be theirs, not mine and not just to please me. Will they stand or will they "BUT". I would like to head the BUT off at the pass.
I took 18 minutes instead of 12 so now I have to get another child up and get one out the door. Off to the races, again.