I went into a supermarket in central Ohio the other day, walking behind two teenage boys. As they passed the salad bar, one of them grabbed several mushrooms without missing a step. They were on the way to the produce department. They stopped in front of the strawberries across from where I was selecting my grapefruit. They shooed away a few gnats, commenting about them as they pawed over the berries to find the biggest, ripest and tastiest possible.
"Has anyone ever compared for you boys your actions there and stealing?", I asked. They looked at me like I was still in my straight jacket and the men with the nets were right behind me. "Can't we taste them?", they replied. "Certainly", I said, "after you buy them like the rest of us."
Just then another man approached them and told them that he had seen them take the mushrooms from the salad bar. As the two of us stood there watching them, they finally put the berries back and walked off to another part of the store. I had the distinct feeling that they had probably seen similar actions from adults.
God says in Exodus 20:15, "Thou shalt not steal." He does not distinguish between stealing an automobile or a few strawberries. He simply forbids the taking of anything that belongs to another. He doesn't make an exception for just "tasting" the strawberries. Hear it again: "Thou shalt not steal."
Earlier generations in our country knew that. They learned it when their teacher read the Bible in the classroom at the beginning of the school day. They read the same principles in the old McGuffy Readers. They heard them again in Bible Clubs after school, and in most of those venues they memorized the principles of morality that would serve them a lifetime.
But nowadays we have had the liberal cry that nobody has the right to impose their moral standards upon our children. As a result, our children are set adrift on life with no moral compass or rudder. We are in about the third or fourth generation of such aimlessness and the fruit is frightening.
Now maybe you don't want just anybody, in just any old context, imposing moral standards upon your children. But somewhere they had better pick up some. I would strongly suggest to you that you, their parents, take them to a good Sunday school and church where the Bible is believed, faithfully taught, and lived by the people in the pulpit and in the congregation. The truths and demands of God's Word are absolutely necessary for decent moral conduct.