Thursday, August 1, 2013

Train up a child

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

This teaches us that we are to train up our children, train them in the way they should go. I would like to think that all 5 of my children will not depart from their training, I am pleased that thus far the two that are already on their own are staying by the their training. God has blessed us with a daughter, 4 sons and now another son through the marriage of our daughter. The following is something that I wrote at 1:30 this morning about our children.....

When each of you were born our world changed just a little bit more, not for the worse but for the best! On August 2, 1992 the Lord gave us, Tabitha Jane to us. For 21 years, tomorrow, we have watched you grow, stumble, fall, get up and keep going. 21 years ago if I had been told that you would be 1200 miles away from me I would have never believed it. You my dear daughter have grown to be a wonderful, beautiful young lady! I'm so grateful that you have followed Proverbs 22:6.

Then when you about 10 months old we learned there was to be another baby in our family. I was told by a few people, "you are turning this childs life upside down by having another." Well, I think we were far from turning your world upside down!! On Dec 14th William Paul IV was born on the 15th when we came home, you went right past your mom to the baby!! He was almost as big as you, but that didn't matter you loved him, fed him, helped me in every way you could. I heard 3 more times you are turning their world upside down with a new baby. Every time you and the brother(s) below you proved that to be wrong! Our world was never turned upside down it was made that much better! Paul IV even as little boy LOVED to work! He has continued through his 19 yrs of life to work and work hard. Again he is living Proverbs 22:6 and we thank the Lord for that!

Then in March of 1995 our 3rd child, Caleb Robert joined our family. Now Caleb is our family clown and he has brought many a laugh into our lives... One time in particular we were in at a hotel everyone was sitting around watching a TV program when out of the blue we hear:
"Move your feet!
I said, "move your feet!" then came the response, Oh those are mine ha ha ha ha...
Caleb can look one in the face and be serious and say, "no you diiiidn't" (misspelled on purpose)  Knowing you hadn't done anything or had just done this or that. Caleb is the son that makes everyone and anyone laugh! As he prepares to leave for college in a year my prayer is that he'll too follow Proverbs 22:6.

Because it had been close to 3 yrs we thought the Lord had given us the children he wanted us to have. As I go into the doctors for a routine check-up she asked are you pregnant? My response is no I don't think so.... Well Jan 23, 1998 brought us baby number 4 Samuel Maurice. He's our tenderhearted child
if someone is hurting Samuel seems to catch on immediately to that. Samuel loves to draw and be creative with his hands.

Well our world would be "turned upside down" just one more time that was May 1, 1999. We will never forget his birthday or the others but Jason well he did sort of turn the world upside down... we were members of First Baptist Church in Hammond, IN at the time. May 1st well, that was a BIG day! If I remember correctly we had, had soul winning all week that week and it might have been one of the wonderful Pentecost Sunday's that Dr Hyles LOVED to have. Well... As we had been told several times, Dr Jack Hyles wasn't happy with someone who rented a bus, parked in the back of the handy capped parking lot and NEVER used it!! At the time NO one knew who was suppose to be driving that bus, UNTIL.... about 1 in the afternoon my husband remembers the bus!!! Well, once Preacher learned of the situation he wasn't as unhappy as he was originally that morning.  So the phrase you will turn their world upside down, might have been true with Jason and the big day at FBC Hammond on that faithful Sunday in May of 1999. Jason is well, he's our talker.... He can talk, and talk, and talk. He's cleaner also, especially in the past few years Jason will see a job that needs to be done in cleaning and do it!

We love all 5 of our children and we are Thankful for each and everyone of them. Our world was changed with each but FAR from being turned upside down!

Friends, if you have 1 child or 19  don't give up on them!! Train them up as the Lord commands. We made mistakes yes. We probably made huge mistakes in their training, but God through his mercy and grace has allowed our good aspects of training out weigh the mistakes!

Never compare your children, one may be strong in an area where another is weak. Don't compare them they are individuals. Yes from the same family but individuals, you say they all have the same parents some attributes of us, BUT they are individuals!  I have 4 boys they are as different as night and day. Even with our daughter I can't compare her to the boys or vise versa. A child is just that a child, he's not his sister or brother! God made HIM to be who? To be himself.

Just trust in the Lord, read his word, us his word to train your children through God you will do just fine!

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." 

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