I don't know who else needs to hear this today, but this verse from Proverbs 22 isn't condemning you:
"Train a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it."
Here's what it's not saying:
This proverb is not a magic formula.
It's not a prosperity gospel - do this and all these amazing things will happen.
How do I know this?
Because I need to hear this too.
Here's what we did:
👉Daily family morning bible and prayer times
👉Teaching our boys to pray and listen to God
👉Seeing the sick healed
👉Telling others about Jesus
👉Memory verses
👉Instrument-learning for worship times
👉Encouraging them to engage during church meetings
👉Going to God first whenever there's a problem
👉Seeing God answer prayers - huge ones too
👉Experiencing the weight and heavy glory of the presence of God.
Here's what we also did:
👉Teaching them to question and find answers for themselves
👉Teaching them to take risks and succeed or fail well
👉Giving them choices and helping them to make wise ones
👉Accept and love them when they're not so wise
And this has led to them asking their own questions about faith and the world.
It's led to them making their own choices, which aren't the ones we'd hoped for.
They've made mistakes.
They are their own people, with their own thoughts and values.
Watching this can be crushingly disappointing.
The fear can be paralysing.
The internal accusations never-ending.
But isn't this how Father God parents us?
He didn't make us robotic, following sets of rules and loving him because we have to.
He gave us choices. He made us free. Our lives are messy. We make mistakes. We do things in ways that grieve his heart. We find the real meaning of grace when we discover that we are still accepted and loved by him, despite our choices. And in the end, we love him because we choose to not because we have to.
So, if you're in this shitty gritty season of watching your babies who used to sing and pray in church now reject all those things you taught them....
Well done.
Because you've trained people who are thinking for themselves.
You have taught them how to make choices, how to mess up, how to be real.
You've succeeded in giving them the freedom to find out what they really believe about the world.
Every time you tell them you love them or find a way to encourage them, you are modelling grace and love and acceptance to them.
You are rocking it.
