Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
This passage of scripture instructs us as parents to train our children while they can be trained, while their young minds are still pliable, and if we are faithful and consistent in our parental duties, the child's later years will usually bear testimony to the fact. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for us parents to be faithful in the training of our children, for there are very serious repercussions for time and for eternity, if we are faithful or if we are not. The natural tendency of the human heart is downward, and the carnal desires and lusts we are all born with do exert a gravitational pull on our minds, and this fact applies across the board, whether a person was born into a Christian household, or whether they were brought up in an irreligious environment. Let's read:
Psalms 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
One of the more common mistakes made by parents is to put off the training of our children for later years, when we believe they will be able to understand. But this is a terrible error for us to harbor, for obedience must never be taught as something that is based primarily on our understanding, only to be rendered when there is an intellectual assent to what the child is being asked to do or not to do. If obedience were to be based on our understanding, we would never pray to a God whom we have never seen of touched, and we will never be baptized to wash away our sins, for in all our years of experience, we have never seen or understood how a person's sins are washed away by water.
Therefore it is of critical importance for us parents to train our children to implicit obedience and unquestioning adherence to the sacred scriptures, and then as they grow older, the many explanations will come. This process must be accomplished in most part during the first seven years of a child's existence, and it is indeed a small window of opportunity that is often missed by many parents, Christian and non-Christian alike. The theory that the children will out-grow their natural evil tendencies is a fatal sophistry of the devil, and makes their training in later years a thousand times more difficult, if at all possible. Evil tendencies and propensities strengthen with the passage of time, and if the children are not given a clear moral compass during the first seven years of their experience, the natural evil dispositions will take root and become cemented before the parents know it.
Therefore we are under sacred obligation to fulfill our parental responsibilities in training our children from the earliest years, so that the overall tenor of their experience can be set whilst their minds are still susceptible to the teachings of God's word. This is what Eli failed to do with his two sons who were brought up not to fear God or man, and instead of disciplining them as Eli ought to have done, they were rather sustained in a wrong course of action, simply because he did not relish the parental duty of correcting or punishing them when they persisted in wrong doing. This unfaithfulness on Eli's part forever debarred him and his sons from entering the pearly gates, and their mistakes and errors stand as a beacon of warning to those of us who may be following in the same fatal path. Let's read:
1st Samuel 3:11 And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. 13 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. 14 And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.
No God-faring parent takes delight in seeing their child crying because of any corrective measures that were necessary in bringing them back into line, and The Lord will have us understand that not all parental duties are pleasant. The first time we had to change diapers, after our children had done the "unthinkable", wasn't a very "Pleasant" experience, and the same is true of taking corrective measures. The Bible clearly states that if the "Rod" needs to be applied to bring a child into line, so let it be, for he will not die if the disciplinary action is taken in accordance with teachings of scripture. Let's read:
Proverbs 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. 14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
We therefore end with a passage of scripture which encourages us as parents to step up to the plate, and put into practice that which is long overdue, as it pertains to the scriptural methods of training our children from the earliest years. Lets read:
Hebrews 12:5 "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," ... 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
May God add His blessing to the study and practice of His every word. God bless!