Parental Responsibility

No teacher, school, or college can rightly try to take on the work of molding children into dedicated servants of Jehovah. That is neither their job nor their responsibility. God's Word directs that parents themselves are to care for the spiritual needs of their children. Paul wrote:  "You, fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and regulating of Jehovah." (Ephesians 6:4) How can parents apply this divine counsel if their children are away in a boarding school where visiting may be restricted to once or twice a week?

Circumstances vary greatly, but Christian parents strive to act in harmony with this inspired statement:  "Certainly if anyone does  not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith." -1 Timothy 5:8. 

Next time: Are There Alternatives? 

From the Watchtower magazine, 1997