Lesson 2: What is God's Plan for training a Child?

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

Please note that oftentimes when someone thinks of a religiously influenced parenting plan, they conjure up images of children cowered into submission by beatings, alienated from playmates due to customs and dress code, and unable to stand up to their oppressors. Nothing could be further from the truth! A God-centered parenting plan is proactive, and designed to build up a child’s spiritual self.

The Good

Jesus himself once addressed parenting in His parable of the “Lost Son“. While Jesus does not get into the specifics of the characters’ home life up to the point of the events, we can glean that the father’s two sons were entirely different in their character. On the face of it, the older son was the mature, responsible child, while the younger son appeared to be the “wild child” who couldn’t wait to get out from under his father’s wings. The father’s parenting skills shine forth, when he allows his younger son to leave home, fully knowing that this boy would get himself into trouble; he does not react to the obvious insult of being asked for his money as inheritance while still being very much alive; further, the father’s wisdom is evident when the boy finally does come to his senses: no bridges had been burned, no temporary feelings of being right versus righteous were given way to, and so the road was paved for the younger son to return to his father and make amends, confident that he would be welcomed.

At this point one might feel somewhat hopeless, especially in light of the fact that this story is only a parable Jesus told, and so the characters are probably just made up. Nonetheless, one does not have to be a paragon of wisdom to train a child in a godly way. For example, Timothy was the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother, who later converted to Christianity. (1) Thus, he grew up in a home where at least one parent was a non-believer. Timothy was brought up by his grandmother and mother in the Jewish faith, and then later on in the Christian faith. (2) It became soon apparent that Timothy was destined to work for the gospel (3), and was later considered a loyal and obedient follower of Paul. (4)

Consider also Jesus Christ, the author and perfector of our faith, as He is called in the Bible. Mary started out as a single mom who married when pregnant. We hear nothing about Joseph‘s parenting; we know later that not even His family thinks of Jesus at one point of his ministry as being the true Messiah. (5) Nonetheless, He proceeded down the path God gave Him.

1  2  3  4  5   

Print this page