Proverbs 22:6 Why God Gave Children Parents
Proverbs 22:6 Why God Gave Children Parents
Why did God give children parents? Here are three timeless truths from the greatest manual on child raising ever known to man.
- God gave children parents that we might train them for the Lord. In that father-son chat which is the Book of Proverbs,
Solomon wrote in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old enough to grow a beard, he will not depart from it.”
- God gave children parents so that children and parents alike might learn to trust in God. Parents, how much closer to
Jesus are you today because you have children? Since more is caught than taught,
- God gave children parents so that parents might treasure their children as priceless gifts from God. God said in Psalm
127:3-5 “Children are a gift from the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.[4] As arrows are in the hand of a
mighty man; so are children of [your] youth.[5] Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them: they shall not be
ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
An Old Testament quiver held five arrows. Since that’s the case, does this passage teach that parents won’t be happy until our
quiver’s full with five (apparently, some of us aren’t trying hard enough)? Since the quiver represents the amount, how many
of us see our children as arrows to be shot?
That’s right, if little Junior and mighty Missy are arrows, then every child should be shot – in life, just as an arrow should be shot from a bow.
What do we know about shooting arrows from a bow?
- When shooting an arrow from a bow, you need a target (you don’t just shoot an arrow in the air hoping it will land at the desired location). When you shoot an arrow from a bow, you establish a target and you decide the direction. When raising your little arrows, no parent consistent with Scripture will allow society, the media, Google, the family down the street, or your friends the next town over to determine the direction your child goes. God says it our individual responsibility as parents to bend our children toward the things of the Lord. That’s the direction our children must go.
- When you shoot an arrow, how do you do it?
- If the bow string is too tight, the bow breaks and the arrow falls to the ground not reaching its destination.
- If the bow string is too loose, the arrow is released but it falls short of its destination.
- For the arrow to reach its destination, the bow string or tension and discipline must be balanced. Only then will the arrow reach its destination. That balance for children is found in the Scriptures. Your greatest child raising guide book was not written by Spock, Freud, or Dobson. It was written by Jesus Christ. That guide book is God’s Word.
When God created Adam, God made Adam from the dust of the earth. But when God created children, He added electricity. They may crush things, flush things, kill things, spill things, fall off of things, and eat the most horrible of things but they are the precious jewels that God has entrusted to parents. Treat them as priceless treasures. Even though all of us remember how we got them we need to remember why. Children are gifts to parents from God. Appreciate the reason God gave children parents.
Years ago, I ran across this article on parenting. When it comes to the kids, it hits home and puts the cookies on the lowest shelf. It’s entitled, Someday. Think of yourself, as a parent, looking back on those days when you were raising children. It reads,
Someday, when the kids are grown, things are going to be a whole lot different! The garage won’t be full of bikes, electric trains on plywood, sawhorses surrounded by chunks of 2 x 4’s, nails, a hammer, and a saw, unfinished experimental projects, and the rabbit cage … Someday, I’ll be able to park both cars neatly in just the right places and never again stumble over skateboards, a pile of papers saved for the school fund drive, or the bag of rabbit food now split and spilled … Someday, when the kids are grown the kitchen will be incredibly neat, the sink will be free of sticky dishes, the garbage disposal won’t get choked on rubber bands or paper cups, the refrigerator won’t be clogged with cartons of milk, the blender won’t stand for 6 hours coated with the remains of a midnight milkshake, we won’t lose the tops to jelly jars, catsup bottles, the peanut butter or the margarine and my lovely wife will actually have time to get dressed leisurely without having to answer a dozen questions on math or spelling words and she’ll be able to get her hair done without trying to squeeze it in between racing a sick dog to the vet and a trip to the orthodontist with a child in a bad mood … Someday, when the kids are grown the telephone will be available and free of lipstick, mayonnaise, corn chip crumbs, and little toothpicks stuck in all the holes and silently and amazingly it will just hang there without looking as if it was growing from a teenager’s ear … Someday, when the kids are grown, we’ll be able to see through our car’s windows and fingerprints, tongue licks, sneaker footprints, and dog tracks will be conspicuous by their absence … Someday, when the kids are grown, my wife won’t lose her keys, I won’t have to dream up new ways of diverting attention from the gum-ball machine! I won’t have to answer: Daddy, is it a sin that you’re driving 47 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone, I won’t have to promise to kiss the rabbit goodnight, or to wait up forever until the kids get home from dates, or have to take a number to get a word in at the supper table, or endure the constant pounding of Christian contemporary music just below the level of pain! Yes someday, when the kids are grown, things are going to be a whole lot different for 1 by 1 they’ll leave the nest & the place will begin to resemble order and maybe even a touch of elegance & the clink of china and silver will be heard on occasion & the crackling of the fireplace will echo through the hallway & the phone will be strangely silent and the house will be quiet, calm & always clean & empty & filled with memories and lonely and we won’t like that at all and we’ll spend our time not looking forward to someday but looking back to yesterday & thinking: maybe we can baby-sit the grand kids and get some life back into this place (Swindoll, Winter 249-250).
Before that someday comes, as parents, we need to see our child as the greatest natural resource in the world, as a mirror reflecting the images presented to it, as a poor man’s riches, as a new thought from God with incredible potential and radiant possibilities, and we need see our child as a priceless treasure, a sacred trust on loan from heaven, and as a temple in whom Jesus Christ wants so badly to dwell. In our children, let’s appreciate what we have. Let’s make every moment a memory that counts for eternity for God.