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Training Our Children

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

Children need to know right and wrong, and the best place to learn it is at home. If they don't learn it there, they may end up without any moral and spiritual anchor.

Children also want their parents to care enough for them to be strict. Parents who refuse to discipline their children are actually sending a signal, saying they don't care what happens to them. The Bible says, "He who loves [his son] disciplines him promptly" (Proverbs 13:24).

The Bible also says to train our children in God's ways "precept upon precept, line upon line...here a little, there a little" (Isaiah 2810). In other words, when a child is about to become a teenager, we can't suddenly say, "I've ignored it so far, but now I'll cram religion and morals into my child." It must start the very moment he or she has any understanding.

But what we do is as important as what we say, for children usually acquire their parents' characteristics and habits. What are our children and grandchildren learning from us?

From Billy Graham's Hope for Each Day; Morning and Evening Devotions