A popular idea among Christian parents whose children have gone off the rails is that children go off the rails because parents are unlucky. According to legend, there are vast numbers of ‘good’ parents who raise their children to value honesty, integrity, self-sacrifice, generosity, and kindness but bad luck causes those children to rebel against everything they were taught. According to the same legend, good luck causes some kids to turn out great despite being raised in horrific homes.

What if it’s true? What if the success or failure of children is determined by a cosmic roll of the dice?

It would change the way we raise our kids. Parenting would be a whole lot easier!

There’s no need to be role models for our kids. Adults can do whatever makes us happy! We don’t need to think about what’s “good for the kids” because it doesn’t matter. Children are ultimately products of blind chance so parents can stop doing the hard work of nurturing.

We can toss away all those child development books. They’re useless. Our child’s development is unpredictable. They might be saints or they might be demons. We’ll just need to wait and see.

And we can certainly stop taking our kids to church! The Christian faith has no power over random chaos. Dumb luck decides who belongs to the Kingdom of God.

There are no weeds in my neighbor’s lawn. My yard, on the other hand, is a grand display of crabgrass, dandelions, thistles, and other non-grass plants. His yard is neat and uniform. My yard is a mass of unruly vegetation.

That’s how it goes with yards, right? Some of them are pristine and beautiful while others are eyesores. Flowers bloom in my neighbor’s yard. His shrubs are tidy and there’s no grass poking through the cracks in his sidewalk. He’s very, very lucky to have such a gorgeous property. Would you agree?

(Proverbs 19:18) “Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.”