Train A Child

Scripture

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

~Proverbs 22:6, NIV

Quote

A parent’s final resource, and the most powerful, is prayer.

~Timothy Keller

Timothy Keller has some insights on raising children that I thought was interesting. A lot of us grew up on the KJV which reads…Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. My mother use to highlight, “when he is old.” I think it helped her deal with her prodigals. She didn’t have much trouble with the girls but all the boys put her to the test in one way or the other. Looking back, I think my worse years in terms of rebellion were 14-16. By the time I was 17, I realized that my mother was my best friend. I always associated Proverbs 22:6 with Mother’s strict discipline. But Keller and the NIV give us a new insight. We are to point our children in the right direction both morally and sociologically. Many parents make the mistake of directing their children to their own passions instead of the passions of the child. Some children are involved in sports that do not want to be but their parents force them. This is not proper direction. The MESSAGE and the TLB follow this same line of thought: the message reads…
Point your kids in the right direction.

According to Proverbs, there are three things that determine a child’s destiny: Nature, Nurture and Choices. First, there is the child’s nature or disposition. Not all children are the same. If you are the parent of more than one, you know this is true. Some children have a natural disposition to take instruction others do not. Issac and Ismael were polar opposites. Issac didn’t have a rebellious bone in his body while Ismael was contentious and would fight you at the drop of a hat. I’ve seen kids that needed very little correction but they are not the norm. If you are the parent of the Issac type, you do not get the credit, the child was born with this disposition–your parenting skills had nothing to do with it. The second aspect is Nurture and this is where the parent plays a key role. Not only are we to correct and discipline, we are to affirm and encourage. Ultimately, the child will grow up and as an adult, they will do as they please. As long as their feet are under our table, we can tell them what to do but when they get on their own, they will do as they please. So the third aspect is CHOICES. Wrong choices lead to bad consequences. When it comes to adult children making bad choices, parents are helpless. This is where prayer becomes vitally important. Prayer is a DIVINE CALL to a DIVINE PERSON to whom nothing is impossible. It is a full acknowledgement that we have a problem we cannot fix.

There is something I am supposed to put in the extra and I thought of it last night but didn’t write it down and now I can’t remember. Big Mama is feeling much better this morning thanks to my expertise in the field of nursing. How could she not get better with me taking care of her? She got sick after the procedure but she seems to be fine this morning.

LORD willing I am going to Athens to get a shot in my knee and make a couple of visits. I got an article last night from Bill Wood…very interesting…sorry, unable to get it sent to my email.

There are is a movement among professing Christians to justify their support of democrats. These hypocrites are claiming to be pro-life. There are releasing wordy statement, something you would expect from politicians. One said, “We believe that a biblically shaped commitment to the sanctity of human life compels us to a consistent ethic of life that affirms the sanctity of human life from beginning to end.” Sound like an old Bill Clinton line doesn’t it? Why didn’t he state clearly that the beginning of life is at conception? These people are not pro-life and that includes the Moores, Beth and Russel. The heart and the motive cannot be hidden from God: in judgment, they will be just as guilty as Clinton, Obama and all the other baby killing democrats.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *