How To Train Them!
"Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old
he will
not depart from it."
Proverbs 22: 6
In Proverbs 22:6, the Hebrew word for “train
up”
means to dedicate or to initiate—that is, to “get
them started.” Train is based on a Hebrew word
that referred to the palate, gums, or
roof of the
mouth.
When a Hebrew baby was born, the mother
would rub sweet date juice inside the infant’s
mouth to stimulate the sucking reflex—to
“initiate” the behavior needed to
breastfeed.
Solomon said that a parent
must stimulate the
child as he grows to take wise paths in life. Just
as
date juice is an incentive to feed, then other
incentives can be used to motivate a child to
make wise choices in life.
Parents’ wise choices and the rewards
that come
from wisdom are the primary
incentives God ordains for motivating a
child to follow a wise path.
There will be stumbles and wrong turns
in the child’s life. But if the wise path is
established early on, a child is more
likely to return to
it.
"Train your children in the way
they should go and not in
the
way they would go."
J. C. Ryle
