Manna from Messiah
Pastor Ellen Mumper, Canada
Train Up a Child in the Way He
Should Go
There is a soft
candle glow and delicious aromas of a wonderful meal just shared. Parents and
children are gathered around the table at the end of a long school and work
week. All is at peace. Bibles are opened and the father or leader of the home
begins to lead his family in worship. This is the family altar, or devotional
time, or the Sabbath evening of rest. This is perhaps one of the best ways to
start to train up a child in the way he should go.
The verse from
Proverbs 22:6 is a promise. GOD, who cannot lie, according to Numbers 23:19,
says "Train
up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from
it." What parent does not want to see his children blessed,
prosperous and faithful? At least parents of believers yearn and want this, and
pray for it. Where does it begin? Is it only correction, with love? Is it only
instruction? We look to the Holy Scriptures for guidance on the best way to
bring up our children.
Deuteronomy 6:4-10 gives
perhaps the best instruction in the whole Bible for training up a child. The
passage I am referring to begins with the Shema, or HEAR! It says "Hear O Israel, the LORD our GOD is one LORD. And these
words which I command you this day, shall be in your heart... "
Before we go to the rest of the passage
we need to figure this out! Do your children know this first part? This is the very beginning of it all.
HEAR, "shema", means not only to hear with your ears but to obey. Who
then is Israel? Was this written to
Jewish people at the time of the Exodus?
Actually it was written to us all, because Ephesians 2 says all who were not
considered part of Israel are now part of Israel by faith in Messiah Yeshua.
The children of Israel have always been by faith, so this is for us all. There
is only one GOD, the GOD of the Bible. HE says LISTEN! Here is what you must
do- here is how you begin to train your child.
These Words have to
be in your heart. You have to put them there.
"…And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and
shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign
upon your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall
write them upon the posts of your house and on your gates."
There is a formula
for training here. In our home, after breakfast every morning, our children
were home schooled. This is the best way for Biblical principles rather than
the world's philosophies to be taught to children. The responsibility for
teaching belongs to the parents! Not all can do this, I realize. Before we
began our day's classes, we began with the Word of God. Every morning with few
exceptions until our children graduated high school, we began with the family
altar. We read the Bible. We discussed the Bible. We assigned memory verses.
This is training. When we had a real sorrow happen, or a great answer for
something prayed for, we showed them from Scripture where His promises were for
peace, for comfort, for thanksgiving, for praise. Though not all can home
school, all families CAN have a worship time, or family altar.
The passage in
Deuteronomy says to talk of these things continually. Many times in our rushed
world, we forget to do that. I remember one time when we had prayed for
something so fantastically impossible, and we were granted what we had prayed
for. We were in the middle of a meal and discussing how a miracle had happened.
Our oldest son who was only about 9 at the time said "Mom, Dad. Let's stop
eating. Let's get down on our knees and thank God for what He did first!"
Let them be as frontlets between your eyes. This goes far beyond the Jewish
custom of tying little black boxes with scripture portions around the forehead.
This is putting the very Words of the Most High GOD into the head by meditation
and memorization. Let them be on your hands. There should always be a Bible
near at hand, and a performing of the things written therein. This is training.
Many folks think of training
as a system of reward and punishment for guiding behavior. The Scriptures say
much about chastening. Proverbs 19:18 says "chasten your son while there is hope and let not
your soul spare for his crying." And Proverbs 23:14 says "You shall
beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell."
This is not talking about beating a child cruelly but about proper corporal
punishment. The purpose of chastening is not for punishment only. That is
necessary sometimes but is the negative side of training. I want to discuss the
positive side of it in this short article.
There is another
important aspect of training that many Christians have missed! Back to the family altar or Sabbath
table we go for this! This is
something Jewish people have done since long before the time of Messiah Yeshua
and which should be done in Christian homes today. The husband or father figure
wraps his tallit (prayer shawl) around his wife and blesses her. This is
teaching your children - it teaches who is the head of the home and how to
properly honour the mother of the house. It teaches the children about the
marriage relationship. Then! There is
the blessing of the children. The concept of blessing is what has been missing
in many believing homes. Bless your children!
The boys are prayed for - May the LORD bless you as He blessed Ephraim and
Manasseh... and then individually the parents speak blessing over their child's
life. And the girls… May the LORD bless you as He blessed Sarah and Rebecca and
Rachel and Leah... and then blessing is spoken over them individually.
A blessing is a
prophecy in a way, and it is powerful!
We know the opposite of this where children are condemned and cursed and then
they many times end up living it out. The blessing imparts value. A parent can pray
for the child to succeed in his endeavors, for his or her future mate, IN THEIR HEARING. They hear praise and
they grow into it. Gary Smalley wrote a book called "The Blessing" in
which he speaks of this concept. Children who are not blessed will hunt all
their lives for the blessing. This is a very valuable way of training a child -
He feels cherished.
First teach them! Teach them to pray and to praise.
Teach them to hide GOD's Words in their hearts and when to apply it to their
lives. Teach them that GOD is the GOD of the whole universe and THEIR
GOD. Teach them their lives matter. Teach them wrong and right behavior.
And bless them.
