The following article appeared in a local newspaper as an “Open Letter to My Parents”: I am your child. You have brought me into this world and raised me to what I am today. If I am not what I should be, please do not be too harsh with me, for I am your product, and by my actions I advertise the quality standard of home. Do not point at one of my playmates as an example of how I should behave, for by doing so you are admitting that they are doing a better job than you.

You say that you love me, and yet it has been years since you put your arms about me at bedtime and with tears in your eyes asked your heavenly Father to watch over me as I slept. You seem to be more interested in my school grades than in the condition of my eternal soul. You give me the impression that it is better to be popular than to be pure; better to be attractive on the outside than to have that “inner beauty” that comes to one who loves the Lord.

So the next time you feel like throwing up your hands and saying, “I just can’t do a thing with you,” please remember you have had the opportunity to influence me since I was born, and that the Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).