Good morning,
Train up a child?
There is one problem I discovered early in my life. There are basically two kinds of kids. Brats and good kids. I heard my parents talk about it and learned first hand that there were safe kids and dangerous kids all around me. As I grew older I was introduced to Proverbs 3:6. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Then I knew that I needed to learn to behave, but now that I am a father and a grandfather, I am realizing that that verse is God’s truth, but how it plays out may be different then
most people think it does. When you read the Bible stories of the Old Testament saints you read that men like Adam and Abraham and David and Solomon all really had some really bad kids. Does that mean that they failed as parents. Does that verse also mean that how well we teach our children will determine how well they do in life? I also learned John 14:15 "If you love me, obey my commandments. I was smart enough to know that I wasn’t always doing too well, but my parents weren’t always doing very well either. As a parent and a grandparent I haven’t done that well either. We know that God never lies and that Jesus never lied when he was training his disciples. So what did Jesus mean when he told his followers that, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. 'I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.? And then he said, Your enemies will be right in your own household!’(Matt.10:34-36) Is this the same God who is telling us how things will turn out?
Then Jesus turned the focus away from the children to the parents when he said, "If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.(Matt.37,38) Do you know any parents or grandparents that are angry with God that he doesn’t hear their prayers that their children or grandchildren aren’t walking with God like they should be? Know anyone who struggles with the fact that it must be their fault that the kids turned away from God? Then Jesus takes us back to the kids with the story about the religious leader who asked Jesus, "Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”(Lk.18:18) Jesus then asked him if he had kept a partial list of the Ten Commandments, and the man said, "I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”(v.21) Now there is a good kid for you. But then Jesus told him that he was missing something. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”(v.22) The man stopped looking at Jesus because he was sad, and walked away because his safety in life was his money, not the promises of God. All of our children, good or bad, have to make their own personal decision about trusting Jesus or trusting themselves. We as parents do not have the power to make that decision for them. We can teach and live and pray for our kids and grandkids, but they are personally responsible for their own eternal souls.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. KJV
Roy Wisner
