Train Up a Child

We have all heard the verse in Proverbs 22:6 and probably heard many sermons about it.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

We will not rehash all of those sermons and interpretations, but David Jeremiah had a new take on it that made me think. The word “train” is not pedagogic, but therapeutic. When a new born is reluctant to suckle, a midwife would take a date and rub it inside the baby’s mouth. This would stimulate the sucking reflex.

Essentially, the sweet flavor created a desire for more and the response led to the baby getting nourishment. David Jeremiah’s application was that as parents, or midwives of our children, we are to “train” them by stimulating a desire and hunger for “the way he should go.” In other words we should create a desire to know and follow God.

This is good news and bad news. The good news is that it is never too late, even when the children are grown and gone. Our lives can still stimulate a hunger for God and to know Him better. Personally, I know my parents’ love for and dedication to the Bible has rubbed off on me. I want to know more. I read a “yearly Bible” that takes me through the entire Scripture once a year. But often I cannot wait, and get ahead.

Our responsibility to our kids is not exhausted when they leave. So it is never “too late” to implement the proverb. That is the good news. It is never too late.

The bad news is that this is a life time commitment. Think the kids are grown and gone and now we can let down the guard? Better think again. They are still watching. They are still available to have some “date therapy” applied to increase their hunger.

The more I learn about my family tree, the more I see this played out in our at-large family. Parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents, great uncles and great aunts all have coalesced into a “training” academy to elicit hunger. And as I connect with more and more of my “clan” I am delighted to find more and more of them are Christ followers. This goes back several generations. Praise the Lord for such a heritage.

Their “training up” continues to the present. I, and we, must commit ourselves to be one more link in the “date stimulators,” or midwives of this and other families. We don’t stimulate the date, we use the date to stimulate the child. And the child is anyone in whom we can stimulate a hunger for God.

What an exalted calling. “Train up a child....”