This guest post is from Clement Chee, author of the ebook entitled “The Secrets of Preaching Powerful Sermons”. Clement loves Indian cuisine. He is currently serving as a youth leader in his local church. You can consult him on how to prepare and how to preach at PreachingSecrets.com.
Proverbs 22:6 – Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Sometimes, training up a child can be a struggle to many parents on earth. Loving them the wrong way will end up spoiling them and if we do not love them, they will grow up with the feeling of being rejected. What is even more challenging is their ability to decide when to say yes and when to say no.
The ‘Nice’ Parents
Have you seen a father who is so nice that you would also wish to have a father like him? When you ask him for a candy, he would gently say yes. When you ask him for an iPad, he will happily say yes. He will just grant you almost all the wishes you have in your heart. On top of that, he will hardly scold you and when you make mistakes, he will smile at you and say, “It’s okay”. I believe this does not only apply to fathers but also the mothers. If parents do not set the right boundary for the children, they are going to end up in pretty bad shape.
Setting the Boundaries
Given the fact that children have very limited ability to judge what is good and bad, parents play a very important role in making sure they live within the boundaries. What kind of boundaries are we talking about?
It is one that protects them from any harm. Shepherds and sheepdogs make sure their sheep live within the guarded boundaries. Jesus said even if one sheep is lost, He would leave the other 99 and go all out and search for the one that is lost. I do believe parents will do anything to protect their children from any harm.
Know When to Say No
Every ‘No’ comes from a bigger ‘Yes’. As parents, we must love our children the right way. Saying yes to every request they present to you will mean disaster. When your little kid spends too much time on an iPad, you know it is time to do something about it. When our kids are eating too much candies and you know this will do them harm, it is definitely time to say no.
Do Not Come Home
Many years ago, a young girl gave her heart to Jesus and not long after that, she lost her father due to sickness. She was so upset that she started to think it was God who took her father away. To the believers, we know God meant it for the family’s good. To her, it was a blaming game. She started to lose faith in God and stopped going to church.
Now it reached the time of the year when the local church organised a camp for the teenagers to learn the word of God from one another. The mother was so sure it was going to impact her daughter. However, this young little girl refuses to go. Her mother tried to persuade but she just wouldn’t go. The mother then made a firm and cruel decision and this is what she said to the little girl.
“If you do not want to join the camp, just go to the room, pack your stuffs and do not come home tonight!”.
If you were the little girl, how would you feel? If you were the mother, would you have the courage of saying this to your daughter?
We may think that the mother is so mean. There must be a better way to handle the situation.
Maybe there is.
However, the mother did this out of her unconditional love for the daughter. She knew in her heart, she had to say no to the daughter because there was a much bigger yes for her daughter’s life. She knew that her daughter needed Jesus in her life.
Leaving no choice to her daughter, the young little girl attended the camp.
Many years later, this young little girl grew up to be a pastor and married a godly man, who is also a pastor. They are now serving in church and making impacts in the younger generations. She is definitely a living testimonial.
A couple of years ago, her mother went back to be with the Lord. She shared what was written above to the crowd in her eulogy and put many people in tears. Her mother truly left the greatest legacy for the daughter to inherit.
So friends, if you are a parent, let us remind ourselves to train up a child the way he should go so that when he is old, he will not depart from it.
God bless you.
