Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it.
Insight
The hopes of at least two generations hang on this most important rule. Everything hangs on a child’s training. Two paths beckon him. One path leads to ruin, the other to heaven. All training that is not based on the principles of the Bible must be harmful. To expand the mind without at the same time enlightening it is but to increase its power for evil. Yet the religious training of a child must not be the edge of a garment that can easily be trimmed off. It must be the pervading substance of his life. Pray for your child. Teach your child to pray. Instruct him from childhood in the Holy Scriptures as the sole rule of faith and way to behave. If you do not give a child these principles, you leave him utterly helpless. The primary object of a child’s upbringing must be the salvation of his soul. But most people in the world deal with their children as if they were born only for this world, with nothing to look for after death. They totally ignore such questions as: How will this or that matter affect their soul? Their only thought is: They must be like everyone else if they are to make their way in the world. And so in all important matters parents educate them for time and not for eternity. 1
Application
Dads, take this Scripture to heart in Ephesians 6:4: And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Are you building up and encouraging your children, or are you mean and provoking?
Motivation
From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures… 2 Timothy 3:15
There is no sweeter heart for Jesus, than the tender heart of a child. – TWEET IT
Prayer
Father, please teach me how to become that training parent for my child.
1. Bridges, C. (2001). Proverbs. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
