Courageous Joy

PARENTING/DISCIPLINE in PROVERBS - Ch 22

22:11 "He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious, the kin is his friend."

~Simply thought this would be an encouraging verse to share, as we've discussed our tongues so much this month.

~*~*~*~*To see extensive word studies on rod, child, discipline and such; click parenting in the side bar...scroll to Oct 24 and read forward. To see the resources I use in word studies do the same. I will not repeat all the basis for my comments here - they are there for you to check if you are new to the blog.

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

~train - #2596 chanakh - initiate, teach, train, dedicate, consecrate

~child - #5288 naar - young man most agree between 16 - 24....old enough to go to battle and marry

~way - #1870 derekh - going along, course of life, path, journey

~old - #2204 Zagen - become old, days of life

Literally: {Dedicate}, Train a {young man} according to the {course of his life, bents, pattern of his life} and as he {grows older} he will not depart from it.

The Bible DOES have some interesting things to say about training our YOUTH.

22:15 "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him."

~Child - 5288 - naar - young person same as above

~rod of correction, rod of chastisement, rod of discipline - Shebet of Muscar or Shevet of Muwcar - same thing..... see rod and discipline word studies for full notes.

Theological Word Book of the Old Testament - "Rod of Correction most often denotes oral instruction".

Foolishness discussed here is not childishness...we are discussing a youth!

Literally: Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a {young person}; {oral instruction} will remove it far from him.

Remember this instruction is to be based on RELATIONSHIP and is to be God centered and God natured. When society tells us to pull away and give our "teens" independence....God's word says "Keep them close, apprentice them if you will, and orally instruct them".....THEY STILL NEED YOU!

As our young men and women have matured, they have naturally come to us with new issues that rise and we are able to "discipline" them.....some questions they begin to ask in this stage...."How do I hear the voice of God", "How do you make life decisions", "How do you weigh which thing to do when both paths seem equally moral and beneficial", "Why don't we date", "How will God bring a spouse my way if I don't try a few out", "Will I make the right choices", "What will happen if I totally blow this", "Is God a God of second chances", "Will you love me if I make the wrong choice and spend thousands of dollars on a worthless degree" ::snort::.....Now If I have distanced myself because "teens need independence" who do you think will supply these answers for my children? Peers - who don't know much more than they do and often know less. God set it up for children to learn from their parents. They naturally progress from infancy, to being a weaned child, to being a young adult and then an adult.....don't buy the philosophy that all teens must rebel or be terrible.

NOTE - I am not dictating the choices to my child. We purposefully keep quiet until asked our until our youth shows they are ready to listen. Youth MUST learn to make their own choices. If you make all choices for your child until they leave home they will be learning how to make a wise choice while out of your house for the first time.....begin to teach them how to make choices when they are YOUNG and you can instruct through through their failures...and the stakes of bad decisions are not as high as they are for a college age student.

NOTE - this is also the age where children will make their OWN choices and some will make bad choices....still they need our oral instruction and love in the midst of walking out the consequences of their sin.....and sometimes there is separation during this time. I am NOT saying that if YOU do everything right your youth will not rebel. I am saying that it is not a GIVEN that every youth will rebel. It will depend on the heart of our children/the choices they make...which is why, I believe we are to be mainly concerned with our children's heart from infancy.