Proverbs 22:6 - what does it mean, the true way God wants us to bring up our children? I think it means we have to 'demonstrate it' - no just by word, but by actions and attitude as well.
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New International Version
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. |
New Living Translation
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. |
English Standard Version
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. |
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The gift of life!
Just as you are conceived when your parents come together, you and your spouse bring forth your child. Parents are responsible for their children. They need to teach them ... an investment worth more than gold!  Some children are without proper guidance. Could it be that their parents were not taught by their parents?
Look around and see what's going on with other families-the good, the bad and the ugly. How does your fit in? Knowing what is not going so right, begin to take action to put it right. Don't let your pride get in the way. And don't make excuse either (another description of Cowardice). There are Parenting courses available to help you. There are counsellors that can help you. You may even have friends who can help you. Don't be an ass and waste the golden years ... when your children grow older, they may leave you and start their own. |
The Duty of the Parent is to Love ... By Dr. Frederick K.C. Price
Duty means “responsibility.” The first responsibility of parents is to love their children. The thing most people do not fully understand is that everyone has to be taught to love. We think of love as some sort of emotion that happens spontaneously, a feeling that comes out of nowhere like lightning and strikes you. God is love. The Word says so (1 John 4:7-8). Therefore, love is a characteristic or a character development; a state of being. I know that sounds strange, because we are so conditioned through novels, movies, television, and so forth to think of love as an emotion that erupts within us. Love is not an emotion; love is expressed through emotions. But it is much more than emotion. We have gotten the idea that if you do not have the emotion of love, then there is no obligation on your part to be involved with someone, even with your children, parents, mate, or other Christians. As a result, you do not relate to other people, because you do not have any emotional feeling for them. Well, that is a fallacy. The Bible shows us that love has to be taught, or developed in children just as patience, or self-control. If you do not agree with this, you will have to argue with God, not me—He wrote the Word. Titus 2:1-4 says: “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,” Now if everything were working according to God’s plan, then the older women could fulfill this instruction. But if the older women have not been taught to love, how are they going to teach the younger women? And, that is where the whole thing breaks down: the Church has not taught this. If you have been attending church any length of time, I will guarantee you that you hardly ever heard a preacher tell you that the Word says “teach” your children to love. Too many Christians go along with the idea of love as an emotion. What is spontaneous, however, is the capacity for love. Everyone is born with the capacity or potential. However, the capacity has to be trained, taught, governed, controlled and finally expressed. The word sober in verse 4 is from the Greek word sophronizo, which means “sober minded” or “to voluntarily place limitations on their own freedom,” in other words, self-discipline or self-control. The apostle was not talking about keeping them from getting drunk. He would have assumed that Christian women would not be out getting drunk. Further, there must be a difference between loving your husband and loving your children. If there were no difference, it would not have been said that way. So there must be a difference between martial love and parental love. And, I believe that the greatest example of teaching love to children is from what happens between their mothers and fathers in their own homes. Children absorb into their own personalities the behavior learned in the home during the early years of their lives. Ninety-nine times out of a 100, someone who is a wife beater or a child abuser will be a child of fathers or mothers who were wife beaters and or child abusers. If all they have is emotion, then love will never do them any personal good. Look at one of the most famous scriptures of all, John 3:16: For God so loved the world… Now if the verse had stopped there, what good would it have done us? God would have been sitting in Heaven saying, “I love you, I love you,” while all of us went to hell! No, the verse goes on: “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That verse says that God did something, He gave. Giving of yourself in some way, shape, form, or fashion is what love is all about. Love is demonstrated in giving. It is not just a condition, but an action. And, we are supposed to teach our children how to love. How can you teach your children how to love if you do not love your husband and he does not love you? If you are in conflict and strife all the time, and that is what the children see, they will end up thinking that is what love is. This devotional was excerpted from Dr. Price’s book, “The Christian Family: Practical Insight for Family Living.” |
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