Training our Kids

Our lives are saturated with training opportunities.

The mail includes advertising brochures on conferences and seminars offering training on every subject from “Cooking an Italian Dinner” to “Getting Along with Difficult People” (a seminar they seem to put on every six months or so).

Work, too, has training.  Training on new programs, training on new computer software, training on time management, training on instigating interesting conversations with your carpool (OK. Just kidding on the last one.)

The point is, “training” is a buzzword of our culture.

But “training” has been a buzzword for a long time.

Solomon wrote: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)  And whether you prefer NIV, KJV or NKJV  – the word is train.

“Train” in the Bible is from the Hebrew word chanak which means to initiate or discipline. (Discipline, by the way, does not mean “punishment,” but rather comes from the word “disciple.” )

Let’s say you decided to attend a workshop on a new software program.  You walk into the room and the instructor comes in carrying a TV.  He nods to you, sits down at the front of the room and starts watching a football game. (GO STEELERS!)  Some of you in the class begin to chat and he stops watching long enough to yell at you to be quiet.

You have a question about the subject and you attempt to get the instructor’s attention, but he is focused on the screen and doesn’t even hear you.  After the class is over, you go out “into the world,” try to use the software, but totally mess up.  The instructor is devastated.  What did he do wrong?

Yet, sometimes we as parents do this very thing.  We focus on everything but “training” our children, hoping that the children will turn out OK and learn everything they have to learn on their own.

Doesn’t work that way.

We need to be intentional with our kid-training.

And kid-training is not limited to a weekend seminar, but a 24/7 ongoing instruction curriculum.

In fact, the Lord is so adamant about that, He even gives us an outline of what we’re supposed to teach. (See Titus 2.)

Let’s get serious about training our kids in the way they should go.