Parenting is Hard
There’s no rule book to parenting. What exactly does a parent do?
Proverbs gives us a framework for understanding the answer to that question.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
Training has multiple layers of meaning. Here are a few definitions from Webster’s:
- to form by instruction, discipline, or drill
- to make prepared (as by exercise) for a test of skill
- to direct the growth of (a plant) usually by bending, pruning, and tying
If you apply that to parenting, you could say that parenting is the art of preparing children for life, through the work of directing growth by loving example, instruction and discipline.
It’s a mouthful, but it’s a good working definition. Packed into Proverbs’ are 4 critical points on parenting.
- Children need parenting.
- Children are not born neutral.
- Parenting requires courage.
- Parenting is about the heart.
Biblical child training is about so much more than keeping children alive and managing their behavior. It is a rescue mission. Carried out with courage it produces young adults whose hearts are molded into the image of Christ and into relationship with their heavenly Father.
Tom Brown is the planting pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Wichita. Tom and his wife, Mandy, have worked together in ministry for 18 years and have four children. More about Pastor Tom Brown