Train Up a Child

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

The bible says that a child needs to be trained in the way they should go.

God puts responsibility for training up kids in the hands of parents.

Children don't come out of the womb knowing right from wrong. Children come out of the womb instinctively self-centered and ruled by thier appetites, needs, feelings, and emotions.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

We, as parents, are the ones who have to show them right from wrong. We are responsible for managing their "appetites" until they learn to do so for themselves. We are responsible for helping them learn to manage their emotions and desires.

Prov 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Children have a natural tendency from the flesh to want sweets and junk. Unchecked, they will fill themselves with empty calories that will rob them of health.

We are responsible for training their tastes to appreciate more healty forms of food. Without our intervention, they would never develop a taste for what will build them up.

So it is with what they spend time doing. Without any external guidance, they will have a natural tendency to spend time watching and doing things that feed the flesh instead of their spirit.

Many of the things of God require time and repeated exposure in order to develop a taste for them.

As Godly parents, we must make sure our children are being exposed to the Word of God and things that are pleasing to God.

Otherwise, our children will grow up without ever having developed a taste for those things and learn nothing other than how to gratify the flesh.

Part II