Myself and my brother and sisters were raised in the church. What I mean by that is my mother and grandparents made us get up early every Sunday morning, get dressed for Sunday School and worship service. We participated in every activity the church had for children. We first learned about the ways of God in the home.
At every Sunday meal, I was required to read Bible verses and then explain to everyone at the table what I had read. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the ways he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 is talking about the total process of molding a child’s life. Parental training should help children develop a taste for the things of God. The ideal parent is to be neither overly authoritarian nor over permissive. The parent must balance love and discipline, so as to not provoke the children to rebellion.
Education in the home about God forms the child throughout his/her lifetime. Today we see many of our young people acting out in rebellion. Perhaps they grew up without enough training about the ways of the Lord. There may be times in everyone’s life where there are acts of rebellion that are primarily characterized by sin. But scripture tells us, if the child is trained properly in the ways of the Lord, his/her rebellion will lead them back to God.
One of the major problems in the Black community is the lack of fathers in the home. I disagree! The real problem is there is not enough home training about the ways of the Lord in the home. If there is no father in the home, then the major responsibility for home training falls on the mother in the home. God is more than able to equip the mother with the ability to do this great task. It is not the responsibility of the Church to train your children..Just sending them off to Church just won’t get it done, there must be spiritual training in the home. In fact, children should know about God before they start attending Church .
Training children in the home is a generational activity. I have three children and all of them, and their own children, are saved and active in church. The same is true for my sibling’s children. All of them have college degrees and good jobs. Like the Apostle Paul, I consider their successes dung when compared to knowing Christ.
There is so much mess in some of our churches today that our children can get lost on what’s really important. However, they will not stay lost if they have been trained properly in the home.
What’s really important and crucial is to know the Lord for yourself in an intimate fellowship way. The only one you can truly talk to about you and your problems is the Lord. The only one who can deliver and rescue you is the Lord. The only one who can love you for you is the Lord. The only one who can deliver, rescue, and really work on you is the Lord. As God has once said, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord!!!”