Right now in the college and career preparation class that I teach, we are studying workplace skills. Surveys routinely reveal a perception among business owners that today's young workers (the oft-maligned millennials) do not possess good work skills. The generalization is that too many workers are entitled, selfish, highly-educated and highly-ignorant, unable or unwilling to meet deadlines, undisciplined, unwilling to interact appropriately with clients/customers, and emotionally unstable, among other things. The consistency of these reports suggests that there is likely some truth to them. As always, of course there are exceptions, but these trends are undeniably manifesting themselves in our workforce. The bad news is, they're just doing what they've been trained to do. Those who are working hard and who understand that if they want to have, they must produce have been taught to do so. Those who are an embarrassment to their parents, who think socialism works, and who believe that the world owes them anything have been taught to do so. Now, I'm not excusing anyone. At some point we all have to be mature enough to look at what we believe and ask ourselves whether or not we're right. But, when adolescence is prolonged into adulthood, as our culture encourages, then we never reach that point of maturity.
We have to train our children up in the way they should go, so that when they are old they will not depart from it. The book of Proverbs (you know, the one that's banned in most schools) teaches good work skills like no other source that I know of. If we will train our children in and according to the Word of the Lord, then we will see the desired results. It boggles my mind that we teach children to be prideful, that it is more noble to be heard than to be right, and that we do not discipline them, and then we act like we don't know what went wrong when they go out into world and are prideful, loud, reactionary, and undisciplined. We teach them that there is no God, and then wonder why they don't want to lead lives of chastity, faithfulness, honesty, integrity, and selflessness.
God teaches us in 1 Peter 3:14-16 that "even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear heir intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; having a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." If we want to raise good people, we know how to do it. We won't get those same results by trying to do it any other way. I hold this truth to be self-evident.