Training, Not Trying

By Jennifer Ash

"Making the decision to have a child-it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." 

--Elizabeth Stone

It is inevitable that as a parent at one point or another you run through the complete gamut of emotions with a child. You wonder what they will become when they grow up, who they will be like, and daydream about the possibilities their life holds. Once they are born, it becomes a moment to moment task trying to figure how to give them the world, and protect them from it seemingly at the same time.

As any parent, you try to teach your child right from wrong, how to live a moral life, and be a positive influence in all they do. As a Christian parent you have an even more specific commission to raise your children in a manner where God and His ways are an active influence in their lives. But no matter how hard you try, you still wonder if it makes a difference, and if they will learn to make the right choices.

Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it." If you do this, does that mean all will turn out well, and they will become personal examples of how to live a godly life? Not necessarily.

In the Proverbs passage, the word used is the verb Hāna and is translated "train". To train a child in the way of God is to prepare them to serve God, and follow His Word as they grow into adulthood.  Training is more than just trying; it is a deliberate decision to actively do something. 

Anyone who has ever learned something like dancing, or martial arts knows what it is to be trained.  Your muscles are trained to move in a certain pattern or in response to something in a specific manner.  And though you may stop the training at some point, and time may pass, often when something triggers an old response or memory, there is a part of you that can repeat what you learned so long ago. It is called "muscle memory".

Basically, when your motor skills have been repeatedly trained over time, part of what they learned is stored, and remembered, and when something triggers that memory, they respond how they were originally taught. I think the lesson that Proverbs 22:6 is trying to teach is sort of a spiritual muscle memory lesson. The truth is we never know what life holds for anyone, including our children. But if we take the opportunities God gives us day to day, and 'train them', then no matter what road they may end up traveling, when they need it, they will have the knowledge and know how to seek God and all He offers.

Father, let us learn to be parents who find moments to train our children
in Your ways. But most of all, Abba, let us learn to trust You in their lives, even more than our training.

Jennifer is a full time minister of discipleship who enjoys writing and finding creative ways to connect people with God and His Word.  If you would like to comment on this article feel free to email writers@blessedlady.com.

 

Motherhood