PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

To “train” is much more than just talk. It means that you force a child to do right. When an athlete is in training, he forces himself to be disciplined. He follows a strict regimen whereby he spends time in the gym with the weights, he diligently watches what he eats, and he follows a sensible routine. He intends to excel in his chosen sport. As parents, we want our children to excel in their lives.

When a recruit is training in the army, the drill instructor just doesn’t ask them to show up in the morning and run five or ten miles. They whip them into shape doing whatever is necessary. They are creating a fighting machine that will obey any and all orders given to them in the heat of combat, and the boy is turned into a man.

“Train up a child,” train them up! Tell them what’s right, and then make them do what’s right. Establish character in them. There are a number of ways to create or form character in a child. These things need to be constantly done, and redone, in the life of a child. A child takes more than just a few admonitions to get him straightened out.

There is something called “Bible Action Truths,” or “B.A.T.S.” They are character-principles in the Bible. Like “telling the truth,” they are character-principles. These principles need to be taught to the child. There are various ways to teach them, one way is through mottos. You constantly reinforce Bible truth through the use of mottos: “It doesn’t pay to lie,” “Crime never pays,” you just constantly repeat these truths in the child’s hearing.

You also teach children through stories. Good stories, like you would find in McGuffey’s Readers. They taught lessons on trusting God, doing right, and telling the truth. Here is a location on line where you can download them for free:

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When children read these stories, they identify with them. Good stories that teach good Bible truths.

You can also have signs throughout the house with Bible verses on them, such as, “Trust in the Lord,” “It is better to trust in the Lord than to have confidence in man.”

Then there are “adult examples,” this is the positive side of character-building. There is a negative side. You want to promote these things. You want to get rid of television programming that enforce negative behavior and inculcate positive role models in your children’s lives. There is wisdom in ridding the home of humanistic values. Those things are character-destroying instruments. Much on television destroys character, initiative, desire, imagination, principles, and morals. If we haven’t got that figured out yet, we need to think it through. Bad music also destroys character.

Humanistic values are “Do it now!” “Have your own way!” Those things need to be done away with. Once you rid your child of these influences today, then you begin to promote the positive aspects of character. Be aware that a public-school education is going to teach them just the opposite of what it is you are trying to do. They are going to instill the world’s values, and not God’s. We form character in a child by reminding the child often of principles that are associated with reward, success, and doing right and pleasing God. It isn’t easy to do. It takes up to twenty years to do it right. “And when he is old, he will not depart them it.” If you embed these principles into the mind of a child, and when he is away, he cannot forget those truths, for they will be a part of his personality.

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