I have read this Bible verse countless times. I've even memorized it! But I've never really grasp the deeper meaning of it until yesterday...
"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
Our lesson study at church talked about education in the family. An older lady commented and quoted the verse above, and gave her insights about it. My understading of the verse got deeper after hearing what she said.
"and WHEN he is old. We don't expect our children to be perfect or obeying everything we taught them UNTIL they are old, BUT WHEN he is old." Then she added, "Sometimes our kids needed to be old before they understand and appreciate the lessons that we parents are trying to teach them."
Those words impressed me deep enough to realize the truthfulness of it...at least in my own life. There are many, many things I wished I knew when I was growing up. I wished someone told me not to "do this or that," or "this is the way, walk ye in it". I had to learn some things the hard way on my own. Sometimes, it's already too late. How I wished...
Most of us have to experience lessons in life the hard way because our parents didn't teach us what we needed to learn about life when they were raising us, because they have to learn the lesson the hard way themselves, because their parents (our grandparents) didn't taught them when they're growing up, because their parents (our great grandparents) who were supposed to teach them didn't teach them either, because they themselves were ignorant or not yet wise enough to teach their children so they had to learn the lessons the hard way themselves.... And the spiral goes back on and on and on....to the 3rd and 4th generation an even way back more.
In a much simpler note, our parents were ignorant or not exprienced enough at the time when they could have taught us what we needed to learn in certain stages of our lives, because they had to learn themselves what they needed to teach their children...and that is when they were already OLD. Mature enough to realize what is needed to raise a family.
I'm overwhelmed of the nobility and importance of parental guidance especially in the early years of development.
“Carefully and untiringly parents are to watch the opening minds of their children, giving them the lessons they need in order to develop into Christian men and women. Parents should make all else subordinate to the work God has given them to do for their children” (RH July 8, 1902, Art. A, par.1).
“By painstaking effort parents are to watch the opening, receptive mind and make everything in the home life secondary to the positive duty enjoined upon them by God–to train their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (AH, p.181).
It is THEREFORE, crucial for parents to instruct the children in the ways of the Lord. It is even more curicial for our young people to LISTEN and OBEY their parents, so they don't have to learn things the hard way and then passed the ignorance to their children and grandchildren...to the 3rd and 4th generation.
My parents are not perfect and most knowldgeable in parenting, but I am so ever thankful that they taught us in the best way they could! The most important inheritance we have from them is to have FAITH in GOD and the FEAR of the LORD. The other lessons in life, we just have to learn it.
With this knowledge and realization, I'm contemplating how I would fare if ever I would have my own children. One thing I'm sure though, I will make sure that they will be taught, trained, guided, loved and prepared for whatever they're going to face in life when they grow up. I know I cannot fully equip them, because they will have to make decision for themselves later on, but at least they will have a better chance of not repeating my/our mistakes.
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