There is a habit, no matter how hard I try, I cannot break. These words roll off my tongue bypassing my brain like one of those deep water waves that swell below the ocean's surface then emerge to peak and break with white caps of surprising velocity feet before the shoreline. I cannot help it. I've just been saying these words for so long. No matter your age or station in life if you ask me a question or give me an instruction, you are likely to hear them...
Sir or Ma'am
I'm from the South. My momma trained me to respond with those titles of respect from the time I toddled. She reminded me thousands of times to add that one syllable (well, maybe two syllables for Ma'am - I am from the South) to my answer. So much work and attention went into that. Her labor wasn't in vain. Even as an adult, that training is ingrained in my vocabulary.
Sir or Ma'am
I'm from the South. My momma trained me to respond with those titles of respect from the time I toddled. She reminded me thousands of times to add that one syllable (well, maybe two syllables for Ma'am - I am from the South) to my answer. So much work and attention went into that. Her labor wasn't in vain. Even as an adult, that training is ingrained in my vocabulary.
Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
I read this verse this morning, and I thought about how much work training is. I'm currently following in my mother's footsteps, coaching my children dozens times a week to add politeness to their speech. It's laborious, and it gives me a new-found respect for my mom's relentless efforts.
It's really daunting to think about being the trainer for our kids in things more important than their usage of a colloquial phrase and even more overwhelming to consider that how well we train them might have some effect on how things go for them for the rest of their life!
I read the verse again, and I felt left hanging. Like I had just been given one of those missions where the message was set to self-destruct leaving me alone to accomplish something that even the best moviemaker lacks the ability to make believable. But I know God never leaves me alone, and He never gives me more than I can handle so I looked to my good friend, Strong's Concordance, for some advice and found something that I had missed in reading this verse dozens of times before.
The Hebrew word for train, chanak, is used five times in the Old Testament. The four other times it's used it is translated "dedicate." This momma's heart had to meditate on that a moment!
Good parenting is not about training my kids in a strict program of moral and ethical behavior. It's not a pursuit to make them the smartest in the class or the fastest on the team. It's not about setting them up for financial success or opening doors for them in the workplace.
Good parenting isn't about making good people. It's not about making anything at all.
It's about giving - dedicating them to the perfect parent, loving them enough to surrender control, praying for them, encouraging them in God's Word and in a personal relationship with Him, and then allowing them to follow Him, no matter where it takes them.
It's really daunting to think about being the trainer for our kids in things more important than their usage of a colloquial phrase and even more overwhelming to consider that how well we train them might have some effect on how things go for them for the rest of their life!
I read the verse again, and I felt left hanging. Like I had just been given one of those missions where the message was set to self-destruct leaving me alone to accomplish something that even the best moviemaker lacks the ability to make believable. But I know God never leaves me alone, and He never gives me more than I can handle so I looked to my good friend, Strong's Concordance, for some advice and found something that I had missed in reading this verse dozens of times before.
The Hebrew word for train, chanak, is used five times in the Old Testament. The four other times it's used it is translated "dedicate." This momma's heart had to meditate on that a moment!
Good parenting is not about training my kids in a strict program of moral and ethical behavior. It's not a pursuit to make them the smartest in the class or the fastest on the team. It's not about setting them up for financial success or opening doors for them in the workplace.
Good parenting isn't about making good people. It's not about making anything at all.
It's about giving - dedicating them to the perfect parent, loving them enough to surrender control, praying for them, encouraging them in God's Word and in a personal relationship with Him, and then allowing them to follow Him, no matter where it takes them.
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