TRAINING UP A CHILD

By Pastor Andre Butler





Let’s say that you are training your body to run in a marathon, or maybe you’re training yourself to play well on the basketball court. Well first, you have a goal that you’re trying to accomplish. There’s some result that you want, whether it’s being able to make a jump shot every time or being able to run a mile in five minutes.

Second, you have some type of training curriculum. In other words, you have a plan that you’re following to reach that goal. This of course then involves repetition. You have to do it over and over again so that you’re trained to do it. So now let’s apply this to what the scripture is saying. Well, there’s obviously a goal you’re trying to reach with your children. There’s a result that you want, which is for them to be Godly, mighty, and blessed seed in the earth. And the curriculum that you need to use in training them is the Word of God.

This of course involves the need for repetition.

I’ve learned with my own daughters that what this scripture is really talking about is similar to programming a computer. What you’re doing is programming their spirits. You’re teaching them the Word of God so that this becomes a part of their own spiritual programming. As a parent you need to keep giving the Word of God to your children so that the Word abides on the inside of them, becomes a part of their programming, and eventually they can automatically make the right decisions.

You have to keep teaching them the Word of God and making sure that they understand the boundaries that the Word has given them. If you don’t give your children boundaries, they will absolutely ruin their lives. They have to learn about boundaries in the home before they’ll really be able to stay within the boundaries outside of the home. You have to teach them about things that they can and cannot do, and then you have to repeat it over and over.

Training requires constant attention. Sometimes we can get so caught up in regular life—and in many cases just surviving--that we forget about training. And before you know it, your child’s all grown up and you never really trained them, and then you wonder about the result that you see. One of the most important things that you will ever do on this planet is train up your own children.

Doing that should be a high priority in your life. So ask yourself: what kind of job am I doing in training my children so that they can be the type of person that God wants them to be and therefore a person that will be blessed?

Scripture Of The Day: "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

SHATTERED DREAMS

by Os Hillman

Naomi's life was going well. A great husband. Two fine sons who had two wonderful wives. Then the unthinkable happened. Her husband died. A little time later both her sons die. Her and her daughter-in-laws find themselves in the midst of shattered dreams. This isn't how life was supposed to be.

How did Naomi react to her situation? "...for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!" (Ruth 1:13). Ah, we see her true feelings about the situation. "How could a loving God let this happen?!" "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?" (Ruth 1:20-21).

Mara means bitter. She knew where she was. She was bitter toward this so called God of love. "How can I possibly reconcile this?!" No life insurance. No widow's fund. "What is going to happen to me and my daughters?"

The Bible says the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. Naomi and Ruth move to a community where some of her relatives lived. Ruth goes out to work in the fields to put food on the table. She just so happens to work in the field of a wealthy farmer named Boaz. When Ruth tells her this the first ray of hope penetrates her bitter heart. Even she can recognize the hand of God.

So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!?" (Ruth 2:19-20).

Hebrew custom was for the next in kin to care for the widow in the family. Boaz was to be this man. He would eventually marry Ruth. She would bare a son, Obed. He would be the father of Jesse, the father of David. Jesus would come from the same lineage.

Shattered dreams often lead to a world-impacting destiny. But getting there is often a process where we must work through honest feelings before we can see the God who redeems even the most devastating shattered dream.