To All Parents

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

It makes for fancy pictures, too!

We all know the verse. I know I heard it when I was still a child. But we all know children from great homes that were raised in Christ and now admit they are no longer Christians. "The Bible says this should have worked!" I have heard from a number of parents. The frustration of seeing a child fall away from faith is painful enough, but seeing it right there in black and white really twists the knife. So what is going on in this verse?

You can't punch them into being good, either

Proverbs is a collection of Idioms, Wise Sayings, Fortune Cookie type wisdom. It doesn't necessarily mean promises. Saul was the guy who wrote it and he fell away himself. Then can we take Proverbs seriously? Is it just a waste of time? If this verse is wrong, how many others are suspect? I think it is questions like this that rise up when experience flies in the face of scripture that people can fall away. That is why I think this famous verse needs to be fixed in mind of America.

ו חֲנֹךְ לַנַּעַר, עַל-פִּי דַרְכּוֹ-- גַּם כִּי-יַזְקִין, לֹא-יָסוּר מִמֶּנָּה.

Richard Hess, one of my professors at seminary, pointed out something very interesting at my graduation party. "Should" is likely incorrect. The NAS Bible footnote points out the literal translation is "train up a child according to his way, and when he is older he will not depart from it." The "his" here is the CHILD.

This verse is flipped on its head! God himself says "my ways ARE NOT your ways" Yes, we should train a child up in the Church, but we should also NOT allow them, throughout the week away from church, to follow all their natural tenancies or else when they are older they will continue to follow those natural desires...FOR EVIL (dun dun dunnnnn).

His tenancies arn't looking too good

Sure, it is still a wise saying. It still isn't a hard and solid promise of what will happen, but at the very least it shows scripture is against the notion that we should let these "precious little angels" run around acting like demons and treating others without a sense of morals or discipline. We have seen those children, we have seen those teenagers, and we have seen those adults.

Remember reader, we are all broken, fallen, screwed up, and are drawn to what is bad for us. Turn your children away from these things so they don't become another statistic in the rising number of jerk wads.