Training Up a Child – Parenting with Hope in Christ

It’s my favourite time of year, Autumn! Not only because I get to watch the beauty of the changing seasons as the leaves brown and nights grow cooler. September marks the start of another academic year for my children (mainly our 5-year-old) and brings about the same hopefulness that we all feel at the start of the calendar year.

As a family we’ve decided to home educate our children. Although we aren’t sending our son into traditional education, our worries and anxieties about how our children will develop are the same, and it’s important to re-examine our role as Christian parents in our children’s lives.

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

When I think about “training” the first thought that comes to mind is that of being a teacher, an authority. If your child is engaged in formal education or not, as parents we are called to be a gracious teaching authority in the training of our children.

We need to humbly take on the task as God-given stewards of our children’s lives, teaching them God’s standard for children’s behaviour. Although it’s easy to be preoccupied with outward manifestations of disobedience, we should be more concerned with what is going on in our children’s hearts.

That means teaching them that we are all sinners by nature and pointing them to the mercy and grace of God shown in Christ’s life and death for us.

In our home, that has sometimes been found in a longer discussion after family devotion or a short sentence following a tantrum. No matter the circumstance, it’s a weighty task and one to keep in focus.

Training is also about consistency. We want to direct our children to build positive habits/behaviours that lead to what is good. This proverb is founded on the covenant with Abraham (Genesis 18:19), which encourages parents to guide their children in the “way” that is pleasing to the Lord. As parents our goal should be to consistently point our children to Jesus, and how he calls us to live.

To “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38).

In their waking, walking, talking, and resting (Deuteronomy 6:6-7), we should be training them. That may look different for different families but it means whenever your children are with you, you have an opportunity to train them.

I have the privilege of being with my son for most, if not all of the day, and before formally home-educating I pondered on how I was going to fill the time, but fast-forward a year on and I can share that most of our time is spent talking.

My prayer is that I would really know and understand my son, that our communication would grow richly and in turn help me share the profound truth of the Gospel with him.

Ultimately, in training, over time we will see the response of our children. We must remember that it is our children’s heart that determines how they respond to our parenting.

The training and how we shape influences does not solely determine how our children will turn out. We are called to work as faithful ambassadors, trusting in the Sovereign God, that by His mercy and grace our children will also taste and see that the Lord is good!

So as we’ve started a new academic year prayerfully and biblically re-examine your approach to parenting, fixing your eyes on Christ with the goal of glorifying Him in this wonderful calling.