Eric Haley is the pastor at the Calvary Chapel in Carroll County. With the school season at its end our community's children anticipate the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Yet teachers and school administrators know better, for while things may get a bit crazy, they cannot afford to be lazy and cannot allow their thoughts to be hazy.

The vacation is short and already the next school year is being planned. Summer school is in the picture for some curriculum and faculty changes are being considered, building and ground maintenance continues and we notice that aside from a few short days there is never really a vacation from all the responsibilities of training children to be adults.

Parents likewise have to take this job seriously. It is about more than just back-toschool supplies. While we can assign certain parts of our parenting obligations to the schools or summer youth programs, we still have to remember that the buck stops with us. We have the responsibility to make sure the learning environment is safe and wholesome for our children.

Parents have the right and the obligation to review curriculum, ask questions and monitor progress. While some will suggest that this is the school's job it is not the schools that are held accountable, ultimately, for the physical, educational, emotional and spiritual growth of our children.

Parents who look to the Scriptures for guidance in this area will find Proverbs 22:6 helpful:

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

That is simply stated but training up the child happens whether we are pro-active about it or not. They will grow up and we will have to live with the consequences of our leadership or lack of it. Proper training of a child requires hard work, quick thinking, lots of love, lots of patience and lots of prayer.

We also get a brief picture from the Gospel of Luke regarding the raising of children when we look at the boyhood of Jesus. Luke Chapter 2 is the only chapter in the Bible that tells of the childhood of Jesus. Luke does not give us any great detail about those formative years but what he does tell us is that they were centered around the Temple.

From his presentation as a baby to the age of twelve the only stories we have are of Jesus at church. While we can be certain that Jesus received the standard quality Hebrew education and while we can assume that he lived a normal childhood that included both work and play, the thing that seems to be of greatest importance was not school, summer jobs or baseball. The only thing we know of the childhood of Jesus is that he went to church with his parents and was subject to them.

Jesus loved being in the house of God. His parents loved being in the house of God. Jesus had a servant's heart. His parents had servants' hearts.

The parents of Jesus had the awesome responsibility of training up a child who be willing to die so that others might live. Who are we training up our children to be?

Our job as parents requires great commitment. There is no summer vacation in that respect. Schooldays are always upon us.

Our job as parents may require assigning responsibilities but never allows us to resign our responsibilities.