The Hardest Job You Will Ever Love
“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)
Parenting is one of the hardest jobs you will ever love. Today’s parents are more stressed than I have seen in over 30 years of ministry. Single parents and married couples alike are struggling to make ends meet and their time is stretched to the limit. In addition, they often feel inadequate as parents and lacking in parental skills. There are no perfect parents and as human beings we are all prone to make mistake.
Proverbs 22:6 is perhaps one of the most familiar and often quoted Bible verses on parenting. Yet, it is also frequently misunderstood to be a promise when it is actually a principle. A promise is what God says He will do without exception. Whereas, a principle is what God says we should do and what the probable outcome will be. However, the outcome is not guaranteed.
Proverbs 22:6 is not a blanket promise but is a statement of principles that when applied make children less apt to stray from the Lord and more likely to return to Him if they do wander away. In this verse of Scripture there are three precepts that I have listed below:
1. Give children an example. The Hebrew word, Chanak, translated train-up in
Proverbs 22:6 can also be rendered “dedicate” which means“to commit to a goal or way
of life” (Webster). Children learn by watching their parent(s). More is caught than taught
in the home. Someone once said, “Train-up a child in the way he should go and walk
there yourself once in a while.”
2. Give children encouragement: The root meaning of train-up in Hebrew means “palate of the mouth.” In ancient times Arab midwives would take olive oil and crushed dates on her finger and rub it on the palate of the newborns mouth to create a desire to nurse. They did not use lemons that are sour but dates that are sweet. Children, like parents experience stress and needencouragement. The challenge of parenting is learning how to shape the will of a child without breaking their spirit.
3. Give Children an explanation: Training-up a child includes teaching. The Bible says in
Deuteronomy 6:7, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you
walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (NIV). Sometimes as
parents we are prone to make proclamations without explanations. However, the Bible
says that we are to talk with our children. Children need a conversation not a text
message. They need us to talk with them and listen to them.
Parenting is not an exact science but a process. The problem with parenting is that by the time you figure it out the children are grown. But sometimes, the Lord gives us a “divine do-over” in the form of grandchildren.
