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We are to train up our children: but, instead of training them, we simply raise them. We feed them and clothe them. We give them their own room, their own car and boom box, and leave them to plan their own life.
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

We will be looking into this Scripture in greater detail, but first let me point out one important fact.

As this verse says, we are to train up our children: but, instead of training them, we simply raise them. We feed them and clothe them. We give them their own room, their own car and boom box, and leave them to plan their own life.

Then we wonder why they don't turn out any better. Training involves having in mind a specific end result. It is showing our children what to do and then seeing to it that they do it.

Training is vital to success in life. Let me give a couple of examples.

During the time of training, parents can get an idea of where the end is. But they have a problem: they don't look at the end; they are always looking at the "right now," saying, "Things aren't good now and I'm mad."

They need to be looking at the end result. Remember, God calls those things that be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17).

Most drivers' training manuals will tell you that the best way to stay straight while driving on the highway is not to look directly across the front hood of your car but to look at a fixed point down the road. Keep you eyes looking ahead, where you want to go, not just where you currently are.

God Sees the End Result
When the Angel of the Lord came down from heaven seeking Gideon, He said to Gideon, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor" (Judges 6:12).

Gideon's response shows us that he didn't see himself that way. Gideon was a man without a vision; he saw himself as weak, poor and unable to do anything about his situation.

He looked up as if to say, "Angel, you must have made a wrong turn in heaven. My name is Gideon. I'm the youngest member of my family, and we're the poorest of our tribe. The Lord has left us and we've been taken captive. Things are hopeless and the people here are starving to death." (Author's paraphrase; see vv. 13,15).

But the Lord's response reveals how He saw Gideon by faith: "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man" (Judges 6:16). God did not call Gideon what he was; for by Gideon's own admission, he was a wimp hiding in a hole. God called him what he was going to become.

God doesn't see what we are; He sees what we will become. That's how we, as parents, are to see our children. I don't look at my children for what they are. Right now they may be klutzy. I see them, not for what they are, but for what they will become.

We must have patience with our kids. God looks at things differently from the way we do. Looking down through time, He sees the end result; He calls us, not what we are, but what we will become.

Source: God Knows How to Raise Your Kids - Even if You Don't by John McGee.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers.

Author Biography

Joe McGee
Web site: Joe McGee Ministries
 
Joe McGee, author, national conference speaker, father, and former school administrator, is the founder and director of Joe McGee Ministries, Inc. and Faith For Families Ministries.
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