Parenting

I recently signed out a book from the library called "Parenting: From Surviving to Thriving" by Charles Swindoll. I figured I need all the help I can get and I always have more to learn. One of the things that has stuck out to me so far was the interpretation of Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." He said that the church has often interpreted it as:

"Raise your kids as moral, upright, God-fearing, churchgoing kids. Be sure they learn some verses, teach them to pray, enforce your rules and regulations with consistency and discipline. After all, eventually they are certain to rebel and when they're old, they'll come back to the Lord...but only if you raised them right!" He said that interpretation is not correct. He unpacks that verse word by word as to what the original Hebrew word is and the definition of it.

He says, "Parents commonly think there is but one way a child should go: their way. Wrong!" "The way he should go" in the literal Hebrew is "in accordance with his way." This is talking about the child's characteristics, gifts, and personality. He said the best-kept secret of wise parenting is this: "The job of a parent is to help his or her children come to know themselves, grow to like themselves, and find satisfaction in being themselves."

He says, "Pay attention to your children while they play. Carefully observe what they do, how they do things, and what they enjoy. When you see your children do things well, encourage and affirm them. If children clearly enjoy particular kinds of activities, provide more opportunities to explore them. And as children experiment, give them plenty of room to fail and try something else without calling attention to the mess or criticizing the expense."

His paraphrase of the verse is this: "Cultivate a thirst, initiate a hunger, create an appetite for spiritual things in the lives of children of any age, as long as they are living under your roof, and do it in keeping with the way they are bent - disciplining the disobedience and the evil while affirming and encouraging the good, the artistic, the beautiful. As children begin to grow into adults, their paths will be aimed directly toward the Savior, and they will continue to walk in His sovereignty."

I'm not quite halfway through the book and have already been greatly challenged and encouraged. I highly recommend this book!