What will our children learn if we don’t teach them? Who is in a better position to form and inform their understanding of the world we live in than mom and dad? Not the school system, and not even the church.
The nuclear family and extended family must take on the responsibility. By extension, the church family can and should avail themselves in an advisory capacity, but that is all. Come alongside the parents but don’t interfere. Your opinion is just that — yours. Share it if asked, otherwise keep it to yourself. Please. In your attempt to fix something you deem a problem, you can actually do damage.
There has to be guidelines, guard rails in place to ensure that the parental unit has final authority, as they will be the ones held responsible before God for how their children turn out. Mom and dad, that might be your biggest challenge, to set boundaries, not only for your child but against outside interference.
If it takes a village to raise a child, make sure you don’t live in the village of the damned. And don’t allow your child to be influenced by the village idiot.
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Many a parent has asked the question “What are we to do with the kids?” Children, even when they are tiny and cute, can be a handful. And as they grow, they don’t want to obey any more than we did at their age. So where do we turn for help with the problem child?
This is an excerpt from a blog I found on www.parent.com:
In 1946, Dr. Spock’sThe Common Sense Book of Baby and Childcareexploded the parenting advice landscape. It immediately sold nearly a million copies. Propelled by the baby boom and a positive, balanced approach,The Common Sense Bookwas the second-best selling non-fiction book for over 52 years.
What was the number one best selling book during that time? The Bible.
So, what does the Bible say about raising children?
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is older he will not depart from it.”
— Proverbs 22:6
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The New Living Translation puts it this way: Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
This is among the most quoted proverbs in the Bible. Here, Solomon offers sound advice for parents. When a child is raised with the right values, and the right perspective, those lessons will last a lifetime (Ephesians 6:4). The literal wording here implies that the rightly trained child will not deviate from this path. Of course, Solomon’s proverbial counsel is not an iron-clad promise.
Despite the direction in which godly parents point their child, he or she may choose to pursue the way of the crooked mentioned in verse 5. Yet, a foundation of godliness gives the child something positive to “fall back on” if/when they come to their senses.
Godly parents can only do their best to direct the steps of their children. They can trust that instructing their children about God and modeling what it looks like to have a relationship with God will most likely persuade a child to believe on the Lord and obey Him. If it does not, then those experiences will help to convict and change a stubborn heart later in life.
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Training a child reminds me of potty training. When a child is ready for this training, you cannot tell them or show them one time and expect it to become a lifetime habit. It requires a focused, repetitive training regimen that takes time and patience, and positive reinforcement. But once a child is potty trained, it need never be brought up again.
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This wonderful promise from God can also be seen as a warning. If mom and dad do not raise their children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord” mentioned in Ephesians 6:4, that child will grow and live in the way of the world. They will have no tools to discern and perceive sound doctrine.
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