on ahead of them

Thinking about Hagar and Ishmael. Ishmael wasn't born in the best of circumstances, and because of that, an angel of the Lord in Gen16 declares that he will grow up to be a "wild donkey of a man" and that "everyone's hand will be against him". Now, the angel on two occasions states that Ishmael will have many descendants and that his lineage will begin a new nation, but it's clear that his future was directly impacted by the decisions of his parents to sin.

There are ways you can debate Deut5:9 or Ex20:5, or Ex34:7, but one reading of it makes clear that children's fates are somehow intertwined with those of their parents. How else do you explain the death of David's child by Bathsheba?

See, we don't want to think that some children are born in sinful circumstances, and that because of that, their futures will be murkier than the futures of those born in ideal circumstances. Those children are not mistakes in the sense that everything that happens is part of the Lord's plan. But that doesn't mean they have futures that are ideal (compare Ishmael to Isaac). And that doesn't mean that children born in bad circumstances can't rise above their heritage; it just means they have a harder road to take.

Parents of children born out of wedlock; parents of children born through adultery; parents of children born out of decisions made to try to keep together broken marriages -- all of these need to take heed. The Lord loves little children, sure. But He loves adults as well, and love doesn't mean smooth sailing all the days of our lives.