Today's Devotional

February 3,  2006

 

Subject:  Start The Training Early 

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

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With some insight into today's current state of education, it's quite easy to see what the problem is.  As many of you may have guessed, it starts at home.  One day, I had the occasion of talking all day to class after class of 8th grade students as we recruited for our high school ROTC program.  I couldn't help it, but I continually compared the students verbal abilities with my daughters, who happen to be in elementary school.  My only question was, "how do you make up for children that are that far behind by the time they reach high school?"  I'm not too sure about that answer, but I do know the answer on how to prevent that for today's pre-schoolers.  Start early. 

I think the passage above is not just about what to do, it's also about when to do it.  As parents, friends, relatives, neighbors and general citizens, we have a responsibility for the nurturing, disciplining and general welfare of the children in our lives.  

When my first daughter was born, it was interesting to see that everyone wanted to keep her for a period of time.  Everyone likes the newborn baby and the really small children.  About the time they reach 4, 5 and 6, many aren't as eager to have them around.  It becomes work to control an active, eager soul that wants to do its own thing.  Well that's where the training comes in and if we don't do it, then they will eventually become someone else's problem.  A verse in proverbs says, "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child..." and as I looked at many of the children that day, I wondered, will they be foolish for the rest of their lives? 

Today, lets pray for the children of this nation and most of all for the parents and guardians of these children that they will start training them early in "the way that they should go." 

Carlen