Proverbs 22:6

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." ~Proverbs 22:6


Yesterday our worship pastor and his wife taught about raising kids. They have four wonderful, respectful and highly successful children and they had so many wonderful things to say.

Two points they made really hit home for me:

1. We should constantly be warring for our children against the enemy. He will use everything in his reach to get to our kids. We should be "working The Word more than he is working the world..." We should be in constant prayer for and with our kids. We should be engaging them in the Word as often as possible.

2. We should learn to understand our children the way God made them. Proverbs 22:6 says we should raise them to follow the right path. However, something Pastor Eric pointed out to us is that we should learn to understand our children so we can raise them to follow the right path FOR THEM. "Train up a child in the way HE should go..." Each child is gifted in different ways, therefore, each child should be raised according to The Word but they should be raised to find THEIR path and THEIR gifts God has provided for them.

For some reason, this was like a slap in the face for me. I sat there going, "Well, DUH! That makes PERFECT sense! Why hasn't anyone ever pointed that out to me before???"

SO..."Train a child up in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

I will start to work harder at understanding my kids the way God made them and the way God would have me understand them. I will work harder at helping them be successful in the path God has FOR THEM.

It seems like such a small thing and, yet, it was really exciting for me!