What Will the Future Be Like for Your Children?
A YOUNG boy was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. After a thoughtful pause, the youngster blurted out, “Alive.” Yes, many children share the same concern for the future as do well-informed parents. All parents who truly love their children want the best future for them. Yet the future looks dim.
Morals: “Nearly half the nation’s 15-to 19-year-old girls have had premarital sex—and the numbers keep climbing,” reported a recent American study. Many youngsters worldwide say: ‘If it feels good, do it. Everybody else is doing it. You owe it to yourself.’ But engaging in promiscuous sex, drug abuse and drunkenness has led to countless ruined lives—even to suicide. The future looks even worse.
Unemployment: Many parents wonder why they spent the money to help their children to get an education. Often their graduating children are termed “overqualified” for work, or there are not enough jobs. The number of children out of work is at a serious level. In Canada one out of every five teenagers desirous of work is unemployed. In Italy it is three out of four.
Nuclear war: “I am 14 years old, and I am scared,” wrote one young girl, “scared that I won’t have a future, that we will blow ourselves up before I graduate from high school.” Her fears are very real when one considers the stockpile of “doomsday weapons” resting in the arsenals of many nations. This same youngster reflected on the tense situations scattered throughout the globe and concluded: “Doesn’t anyone care what happens to their children?”
What Hope?
No doubt you care what happens to your children. But you have only limited control over their future. You can teach your child proper moral standards and this may help him to enjoy a happier future. Yet what about all those other threats to your child’s future? Is there someone else who really cares, yet is powerful enough to improve matters?
The very existence of your child is proof of the reality of someone with superhuman intelligence and power. Why so? Just consider the awesome “miracle” of conception and birth. From just two microscopic cells a human develops—complete with skin, bones, eyes, muscles and sophisticated internal organs. The book Miracle of Birth describes such development as a “fantastically complicated series of events” that are “perfectly timed, to produce the most superb of all achievements: a new human life.”
Such miraculous development argues for design. Logic leads us to the conclusion that there must exist a superhuman Creator who designed this amazing process. The wonderful way in which we are created surely indicates that this One cares about us and wants us to enjoy living. He will not let things on this earth go unchecked forever, nor let man destroy himself. But what will the great Creator do?
What Does God Promise for the Future?
For centuries, persons have prayed to “our Father in heaven” and have implored: “May your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10, Today’s English Version) God’s kingdom is a real heavenly government that will see that our caring heavenly Father’s will and purpose are carried out. The Bible indicates that the rule of God’s kingdom will bring lasting peace to earth and will forever remove oppression and injustices.—Ps. 72:1, 3-7, 14, 16.
Conditions on earth then will reflect those foretold by the Bible writer Isaiah. Describing the time when God would accomplish his will toward his people, Isaiah wrote: “People will build houses and get to live in them—they will not be used by someone else. They will plant vineyards and enjoy the wine—it will not be drunk by others. Like trees, my people will live long lives. They will fully enjoy the things that they have worked for. The work they do will be successful, and their children will not meet with disaster. I will bless them and their descendants for all time to come.” (Isa. 65:21-23, TEV) What security! What peace of mind! Imagine having meaningful work for all and knowing that your children “will not meet with disaster.” These blessings will be enjoyed by all who learn and do God’s will.—1 John 2:17.
Will This Come During Your Child’s Lifetime?
The Bible indicates that it will. Jesus Christ foretold certain conditions that would indicate the nearness of a world change. He said: “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress. And because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.”—Matt. 24:7, 8, 12.
Certainly with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, our earth has witnessed every one of these conditions. Jesus added: “Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” So before the “generation” that saw “these things” begin in 1914 ‘passes away,’ dies off, God will bring in a secure new order of righteousness. Since those of that “generation” are up in years, the foretold change is very near.—Matt. 24:34.
There are other parts of this “sign” mentioned in the Bible. Why not invite Jehovah’s Witnesses to help you to learn more about these?
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From just two microscopic cells a human develops in the womb