Tuesday,
April 4, 2023
Train up a child in
the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
We are continuing
with our series on parenting to change a culture falling-apart. In the first two posts we shared about the
need for parental stepping-up when it comes to involvement, because
of the violent nature of today’s world.
Violence trickles-down from adult actions to imprint young minds. We’ve allowed our children to become overly
exposed to violence in every sphere of today’s culture.
This morning let’s
turn to the purpose, or the target, the substance of why
we take such pains to be Christian parents. Solomon says (in the proverb) we are to train
children in the way they should go. Way
is a metaphor to describe the pathway through life. It comes from a root word that depicts stringing a bow. Go is the Hebrew word for mouth/breath,
which, in the ancient world was the same as the deeds of a life. The word spoken was the deed done. Put together, this phrase, the way he should go, becomes
something like, Bend the bow the way it must point, and eventually fire the arrow. The purpose of training, therefore is: What is accomplished in training sets the
course of a child’s life. There
are at least three main priorities in the purpose of Christian training:
INTELLIGENCE Imparting wisdom
is not the same as knowledge. Knowledge
can simply be the combined weight of the Internet at your child’s disposal. Separating out how to use knowledge is the chief aspect of wisdom. The Bible declares that the fear (reverence)
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Teaching our
children to learn of God, and to reverence Him, is the purpose for the process.
INTEREST This is a two-pronged fork. We must notice the natural instincts God has placed within our children, and then seek to bring it out, all with the purpose of creating an interest in Christ. Biblical scholar and author Howard Hendricks tells of a Sunday School teacher who came to his yard when he was nine. He was out playing marbles.
The teacher invited him to Sunday School. Hendricks figured anything connected with School was not appealing, so the teacher
asked a different question. He said: Wanna
play a game of marbles? After he
wiped out the nine year old kid in a couple of games, he then asked: Wanna
learn how to play this game better?
Dr. Hendricks noted that by the
time he’d taught me how to play marbles over the next few days, he’d built such
a relationship with [Howard] that I’d have gone anywhere he suggested. He ended up in a Sunday School class with 12
other boys, 11 of which ended up in vocational Christian work.[1]
INTEGRITY Training them in
the way they should go, certainly
includes teaching them that there is an only way! Jesus said that about Himself! We need to be clear about this. It does matter what you believe. If there is any other way to heaven, then Jesus
is wrong. If there is any other way than
to repent of sin, confessing it before men and God, and trusting only in
Christ, then Christianity is a fake.
Parents, with integrity, teach your children – intentionally – that Jesus
Christ is Lord, and He alone can save them.
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: The Ripple Effect of Faith and Passing Along the Faith
Title Image: Pixabay.com
1 & 2 Images without citation are in public
domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
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