I was talking with a young family last week about the problems that face parents of young children today. In a world of changing values, and the breakdown of traditional family structures, how can parents guide their children into lives of moral and ethical purity? Even simple matters like learning to say "please" and "Thank You", or not spitting on the footpath are not widely valued.

The insidious influence of television, radio and internet on our children's lives continues to grow almost unchecked. Most parents are usually too busy to monitor the information that is being fed to our children, but the occasional warning cries give cause for great concern. A number of radio commentators this past week expressed dismay at one of the nominations for a Grammy Award. Apparently the lyrics encourage savagery against women an homosexuals with language that could not be repeated.

Not so long ago, children were relatively free from these moral pressures, but not any longer. I was visiting the home of one of our families recently, and their young daughter was on the internet looking at the website of a current pop star. She was idly exploring some of the links on the site, and suddenly found herself in pornography! The police blitz on child pornography this past week has highlighted how children can be entrapped through intenet "chat rooms".

Once children reach teenage years the pressures are even greater. The message that is almost universally proclaimed through the media is that sexual intercourse is as normal a part of boy-girl relationships as holding hands. And a new law proposed last year, but shelved for the moment, would have made it illegal to suggest that sexual activity between people of the same sex was not normal.

Even where marriage is lauded as somehow preferable, and TV soapies that feature a wedding are always guaranteed a good audience, marriage is no longer considered to be a lifetime commitment. Of all personal contracts regarded at law, it seems that marriage is the least binding. In fact, so called "Prenuptial agreements" seem to have more validity than the promises made "before God and the congregation,."

I was at a function recently talking to a Professor of Economics at one of our Universities. While not professing any Christian faith himself, his eyes lit up when I mentioned that I lectured in Ethics at a Bible College. He has a particular interest in the question of Ethics, which has become a big issue in the business world. He lamented the fact that the ethical atmosphere of earlier days had evaporated. Only a century ago, a man's word was his bond, and great business deals were sealed with nothing more than a handshake, but today is very different.

The world of today, in which our children are being raised, is a world with no clear ethical moorings. There is no accepted standard of right and wrong. We may be horrified, for example, at the violence thar is being exhibited amongst various ethnic communities, but many of them come from societies where such violence .is an accepted way of life. In traditional Islamic law, for example, thieves are punished by having their hand cut off, and it is considered a matter honour for a family to kill a daughter who has intercourse with an 'infidel', or who changes her faith.

Three thousand years ago, the writer of the 119th Psalm asked the question: "How can a young man keep his life pure?" (v. 9) That is a question that all of us who are parents and grandparents ask for our children, if we do not ask it for ourselves. The answer the psalmist gave is, I believe, still as relevant to us today as when it was written: "By pure living according to your word." God, our maker has given us written instructions as to how his product should be operated. And, just as with a motor car, a TV or a washing machine, we ignore the maker's instructions to our peril.

Contrary to popular belief, we are not left to float in a sea of moral relativism. There is an absolute standard of reference for ethics and morality. Questions of right and wrong are not purely dependant upon changing circumstances. It is true that we have to rightly interpret and understand God's word. Many modern ethical issues such as genetic engineering, cloning or IVF do not have a clear word in Scripture.

But the Scriptures remain as the one sure foundation. Where they speak clearly, we must take them seriously, and in other areas we must give ourselves to serious study to grasp the principles they teach.

The Psalmist went on to say "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Ps. 119:11) That, I believe, is the way forward for our children and for ourselves.