Thoughts on Scripture and Child Training, Part 1

     With seven children, I have clung for years to the promise in Proverbs 22:6: 

Train up a child in the way he should go;

 and when he is old, he will not depart from it. 

    A question has always nagged in the back of my mind: Can I REALLY trust this? I mean, I have known of so many Godly parents, whose children have strayed away from the truths they were taught. Does that mean I can't trust God's Word? In my mind, it came down to two things: either God cannot be trusted to keep every single promise He has made, or there was a key parenting element that God expected parents to act on that sincere, Christian parents were missing every day. Which was it?  How can I parent in confidence?  I decided to search it out. 

    I was floored to learn that I had been taking Proverbs 22:6 out of context all these years.  The importance of understanding all of Scripture in context as well as looking at the original languages for clarification was reinforced to me.  Out of ignorance, I had unknowingly cast questions in my own mind on the faithfulness of God! 

    The context of this verse is a series of Proverbs (wise sayings) that pertain to money.  Verse after verse is discussing financial success, interspersed with warnings against laziness. A random verse on general child training does not seem to fit into the overall theme of this passage.  This spurred me on to look even closer at the details of the verse. 

    My veiled understanding of Proverbs 22:6 read like this in my mind: "Train up a child as a good Christian, and when he becomes an adult, he will never stray. Or if he does, he will come back to it."  Leaning on my own understanding (there is even a Proverb warning me against that! Yikes!), I ignorantly thought I knew what that verse meant. Boy, was I ever mistaken! 

    Here is one way it can be translated from the original Hebrew: "Train up a child in his own way (also could be manners or habits), and when he is old he will not depart from it." There isn't any mention of God's ways in this particular verse -- it is referring to the child's ways! 

    Placing this in context with the other verses surrounding it, we can see it is a warning against allowing our children to continue in their own natural laziness or foolishness.  Proverbs tells us multiple times how foolish and lazy children are. Parents are to instruct children to be wise with their finances as well as to be industrious and charitable. All of these go against a child's innate tendencies. 

     We do have practical advice for child training in this verse! It is specific to helping our children succeed financially: don't allow them to continue in their own sinful, lazy, foolish ways.  This verse, however, was never intended to be the catalyst for all aspects of child training. 

      This removes all shades of doubt regarding the faithfulness of God that so often come with my wrongful assumptions regarding Proverbs 22:6. God never fails to keep His promises! I can fully trust Him. 

     Furthermore, God is not hiding some magical key to child training from me as a parent.  God gives us all we need to follow Him fully and never is holding us to a standard we cannot achieve. I will talk more about some recent discoveries regarding practical child training from the Bible next time.

    The purpose of this little ramble is to point out the vital importance of digging into the Scriptures, verse by verse, for each person.  How many verses of Scripture do I misunderstand by not searching out its context and digging deep for the truth?  I am saddened that I did not look into this verse years ago. However, I am overjoyed and filled with gratitude at the strengthening of my faith that came through this short study. Our God is a good and faithful God. Seek Him through His Word. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

💓 Heather Sparks💓