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Faith Topics
The Essentials of a Healthy Home
The Vitamin of Faith
Proverbs 22:6 is a very well known and misinterpreted verse. Literally the Hebrew says, “Train up a child in his way and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Normally that’s taken to mean: “Train up a child with moral standards and he’ll stray and play like sin. When he’s had his fill of loose living, he’ll start going to church again.”
Our children have to know we love and accept them for who they are.
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What this verse actually means is to raise up a child according to his particular bent. Derek Kidner, a great Hebrew scholar from Cambridge, says, “What Proverbs 22:6 is talking about is sensitivity and uniqueness in raising a child.”
How many of you had your mom and dad ask you why you couldn’t be more like your brother? Did you respond by saying, “Because I’m not my brother.” Don’t try to make your little flat-footed boy be a high jumper because his older brother was. When you’ve got a daughter who pulls a 3.95, don’t pressure your next kid — who struggles to earn a C — to make honor roll. A parent can have one child who’s the life of the party, knows everybody’s name in town and lives for sports. But their other child has a melancholy temperament, prefers to keep to himself and expresses himself creatively through the arts.
Our children are created in God’s image, not ours. He formed the spirit of our children, not us. They are on loan to us. Our children have to know we love and accept them for who they are. Our children need to know we are excited about how God made them, rather than frustrated about what He didn’t make. Let’s appreciate our children individually and do whatever it takes to help them develop the unique gifts God gave them within their particular temperament.
— Rev. Tommy Nelson
How can you raise your child according to her particular bent? Learn more.
Do you have thoughts, questions, advice on this topic? Post your stories and comments in the forum for other parents to respond to. Enter the forum now.
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