What determines what kind of person someone becomes in life?

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What determines what kind of person someone becomes in life? It is easy to speculate that it depends very much on how he was raised as a child. Honest, good, moral parents may have several children. All the children are raised in the same nest attending church and in an environment of good, honest, moral values. Yet the children when they get to adulthood can be very different people. One child may turn into a serious, honest, moral, trustworthy person. Another of the children may become a tricky, highly dishonest, lecherous, debauched libertine. In a family with a number of children there can be a lot of variation among the children after they are grown. I think what a person will become is usually determined in the formative years of his life — the childhood and teenage years. I think by the time he gets to his 20's his basic personality and character is pretty much set. I think how a person turns out depends pretty much on the choices he makes in the formative years of his life. Some serious children are careful not to get drawn off onto a wrong track into bad behavior. Other children in their desire for social acceptance follow the crowd into all kinds of temptations and wrong behavior. The approval of the crowd and social acceptance is more important to them than moral values. Temptations overpower conscience.

One thing that I think makes a big difference in how a child turns out is the amount and type of discipline he receives. One child may be disciplined a lot. Another may receive no discipline for whatever the reason. The one that was disciplined a lot turns out well and the one that received no discipline turns out badly. One child may be perceived as a model child, quick learning and well behaved, is never perceived to need discipline, and is the parents pride. He may be the one that turns out badly.

Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but

he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Proverbs 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let

not thy soul spare for his crying.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and

when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child;

but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for

if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. {14} Thou

shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from

hell.

Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child

left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Proverbs 29:17 Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest;

yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.

What about children who are raised in a home with no moral values? A child raised in an environment of lying, dishonesty, and immorality? I would say that such a child is likely to turn out badly. Some may, later in life, find religion and get straightened out. What about children raised by single, promiscuous mothers? I think the prognosis is not good.

There is one thing that I think does mess children up very badly psychologically, quite possibly for life. That is sexual molestation. And I suspect it is a gigantic problem in America. I suspect that a lot of pedophila and incest occurs in this country. Given the way in which America has abandoned God and Christianity and considering its love affair with lust, pornography and homosexuality, it ought not be surprising.

25 Feb 2023