TAUGHT TO WALK, BUT NOT HOW AND WHERE TO

A rehabilitation counselor took an early retirement to spend the rest of his life preaching. One day, while addressing an audience, he told of how - early in his career - he found a young boy with several birth defects. He arranged financial and medical help. Skilled surgeons restored the child's facial appearance. Trained therapists taught him to speak and walk. By his teens, the boy was able to take part in all the activities of other young people.

Addressing his crowd the retired counselor asked: "What do you think has become of this young man?" One guessed that since this young man had overcome such physical deformities he may have dedicated himself to becoming a great athlete. Someone else thought that, since his life had been changed by medical doctors, that he had become a skilled surgeon. Another said that he might have become a social worker because he received help from others to build his life.

"No, none of these," the retired counselor said sadly. "The young man is a prisoner, serving a life sentence for murder. We were able to restore his physical features and his ability to walk and act but we failed to teach him where to walk and how to act."

“I was successful in helping the boy physically, but I failed to help him spiritually. From that day on, I have determined to use the rest of my life to help people direct their steps and actions toward glorifying God.”

I also wish to narrate a story of a rich man who used to live in constant fear of his eldest son that the son shall kill him because that young man had the feeling that his father has not done justice to him while partitioning his assets. (The fact is that he received 100 acres of rubber estate while the younger son got the business in the town!) The father told me once with tears welling up in his eyes that he sleeps with the door of the bed room is fully fastened and with a revolver under the pillow. He further told, “I, in the pursuit of wealth, forgot to give God to my children!”

Have we forgotten, while busy teaching them to walk, how and where to?