QUESTION OF THE DAY : AS A CHRISTIAN PARENT, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR KID(S) TURNS TO BE NAUGHTY?

QUESTION: Dear Brother Branham, will all the sons and daughters of true, born again believers be saved?

ANSWER: No, brother; no, they sure won’t. See, as I copied David DuPlessis on this remark, “God don’t have grandchildren (see?), just sons and daughters.” See, they’ll have to be born just exactly like their father and mother was born of the Spirit. See? That’s what makes a man a new person, is because he’s born again, reborn. His first birth brings him a natural man on earth; his second birth brings him a spiritual man of heaven, see. It changes him, his soul, not his outward conscience, his outward being, his senses; he still fell, and smell, taste, and hear; but his inward parts, his desires, what motivates him, has been changed to God, see.

                                                    [ACTS16:28,31]

122 Now, remember, the only way that this could happen would be this: just like it was in the time of the Roman centurion. Paul told the Roman, him and Silas, when he wanted to pull his sword and kill himself, because God had shook the jail down with an earthquake; he said, “Do thyself no harm, seeing we’re all here. Rise!” And wanted to know what he could do. He said, “Rise and be baptized, calling upon---on the name of the Lord, and thou and thy house shall be saved.” See? In other words, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou and thy house shall be saved.”

123 Now, how? If your house believes in the same way that you believe. See? You pray and commit your children to God and hold onto God, believing that they will be saved.

124 I’ve just went through the experience with my Rebekah. See? Just commit it to God. When she got to be a little “teeannie,” and she was going with some girl when we first went out there, going---run over to some girl’s house taking music lessons.... And this girl ... I come by one day, and here this girl was setting at the piano playing rock’n’roll. Well, that was just enough for me! So I told her stay away from over there. See? And then she said, “Well, it’s the only place I got to go to take music.” (You know how “teeannies” get.)

125 And I said.... Every kid has to go through that. Practically everyone goes through that age. You did; I did. And we got to think their thoughts.

126 So then, a few days after that her mother got after her for something, and she sassed her. Now, that’s not Rebekah at all. Took off and slammed the door, almost, and knocked the things off the wall, went to school.

127 Now, I ought to have, seemingly, just taken my belt off, and followed her out there in the yard, and brought her back with warps around her, see. But I thought, “Wait a minute, I got to think eighteen year old thoughts.” See? “Now,” I said, “Mother, I know....” And she started crying, Meda. I said, “I know you done all you can do; I done all I can do. Now, if it’s out of our hands, we have to take the next step.”

128 As some lady sweetly wrote the other day (it’s in one of these questions here), said, “Brother Branham, you’re not the messiah, are you?”

I said, “No, ma’am.”

She said, “We believe you to be our shepherd, but you’re always pointing us to the great shepherd.”

I said, “That’s right; that’s right.” See?

129 I said, “Well look, Honey, now, you’ve got to listen to me. It’s hard for you to do this; I’m your husband. But people drive across the nations and around for just a few words of advice. Now, if you.... I talked to her the other day, and she just walked away from me.”

130 Now, Becky never did do that to me. See? And when her mother said something about it, she slammed the door and said, “You expect me to set here and be a wallflower all my life?” And blammy! She slammed the door and went out. That was the devil.

131 I remember, the first two years of her life she cried. We go into a restaurant and eat; I’d walk her on the street while Meda eat, and then she’d walk her while I eat. Just cried and cried. And one day up here in Canada, cried all night, and I couldn’t rest and everything; me standing there and I ... something said to me, “It’s the devil getting at your ministry.”

132 I said, “Hand me that baby.” I said, “Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ, you take your hands off of her.” she stopped right then and never cried no more. She’s the quietest kid I got. From that very hour it was gone. You have to get that.... You have to have that in you though, before you can do it!

And then when she---and then that---she started that. And I took Meda about a hour. I said, “Meda, take your hands off.”

“Me? That’s my kid!”

133 I said, “Isn’t it mine too?” All right. I said, “If she was dying this morning, you’d have to commit her to God for her eternal destination. Why can’t we commit her to God now for her earthly journey?”

And she said, “Well, that’s my kid!”

I said, “It’s mine too.”

I said, “Now, can you take your....”

“Me not say nothing to her?”

134 I said, “I never said that. We’ll quit scolding her, just advise her. She needs a buddy, and you’re the one to be her buddy, you and I. We’re her parents.”

135 These kids today needs a buddy. If they had a mother and father would stay home and take care of them, instead of out here in a barroom running around all night and things like that---wouldn’t have a juvenile delinquency, see.

136 They got away from the Bible; they all went to church and played bunco games and things like that and ... see. You’re trying to polish up like Satan’s ground out Hollywood’s. You could never bring Hollywood into the church, you’ve got to---I mean bring the church into Hollywood, you’ve got to bring Hollywood to your grounds. See? Not go on their grounds, let them come over here. We got something they know nothing about.

137 So we there got down on our knees and committed it to God. I said, “I know she’s eighteen years old---will be in a few days, and she ... and a girl that age will think about boyfriends, and we’ve kept her in.” I said, “I never wanted to see her get married. I want to put her in the office here, do the work. I want to see her filled with the Spirit and live like that.”

And she.... Well, we all wanted that. She said, “Well, we can’t do that.” Said, “She just won’t listen to it.”

138 I said, “Wait a minute! We’ve raised her all we can, now put her in the hands of God---commit her.” And I said, “Then when she does anything say, ‘Becky, darling, mother don’t want you to do that, but I’m your pal; I’ll stick by you.’ Let her know that you love her. She’s going to get somebody to love her, and it might be the wrong woman.” See? I said, “You be the woman does the loving.” I said, “Honey, that sounds kind of crude, but people come everywhere, and set on personal interviews, and things.” I said, “I’m so common; we’re common to one another, because we’re husband and wife, but we never let that happen. You must remember, this is the name of the Lord!”

So she said, “All right.”

We got down and committed it to God. Said we’d take our hands off it.

That afternoon she come in; she said, “Well, I guess you’re still saying I ain’t going over there!”

139 Meda said, “No, I never said nothing about it.” Said, “You know, Mother don’t want you to do that; and you know that it liked to killed your daddy when he heard you up there playing that boogie woogie music, ever what it was, with that girl.’ Said, “Now, he didn’t want you to do that, and we don’t want you to do that, Becky, but we just committed it to the Lord. I want you to know we love you. Whatever you do, we still love you.”

She hollered, said, “I’m going anyhow!”

Said, “All right, Dear.” So went ahead. Said, “All right, I’ll have supper ready when you get back.” She never did go! No, she’s never went since. See?

140 Not long after that she met George; George is a Christian. That settled it then.

141 She was trying to tell Mrs. Wood about it the other day. She said, “Oh, I got awful wild.” Said, “Daddy and Mother committed me to the Lord.” Said, “Awful wild.” But that was wild to us; we don’t want to get any wilder than that, see. Just let it go like that. All right.



Excerpts from QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, #1
Jeffersonville, IN
August 23, 1964
Vol. 64, No. 68


God Bless You All.


Joshua