Train Up Your Children
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6 Every Tuesday afternoon I have the privilege of volunteering at an after-school, Christian based program called Kid’s Club. This program gives me the opportunity to teach children about God’s love and the Bible. For a few weeks we have been going through the ten commandments. Last week, we talked about commandment number seven, which involves not committing adultery. I really enjoyed the video, which explained this commandment to the kids. It talked about the importance of keeping your promise of love to your spouse and about not breaking your spouse’s heart.
As I took my group of kids out to the grassy area to talk about the video, I was surprised to see so much excitement, especially from my first grade boys. When they heard about how God loves them, and that someday they might be called to be married, they responded with such sincerity. It was so sweet to hear their insights about how important they thought it was to keep that special promise to love their spouses.
As some of you have noticed, I have a great passion to see children, teenagers, and people understand the true meaning of marriage. It is my personal mission to help children and young adults to understand the way God sees marriage and the way God designed it to function. I have this dream of people being so filled with God’s love, that they can enjoy a loving marriage, raise Godly children, and participate in their communities. A healthy marriage is not just a wonderful blessing from God, but it is also one of the most powerful ways to change this world into a better place.
It is very important for us as parents to train up our children in the way they should go. Some might think that children might not be ready to hear much about marriage when they are little. My experience is that kids are like a sponge. They absorb much of what you say. So the sooner you start the better it will be for them as adults.
Last week as I interviewed this beautiful couple I met about a year ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about the testimony, the husband, Matt shared about his spiritual upbringing. He talked about the amazing legacy he received from his parents. They modeled God’s love and what a marriage should be. He married a beautiful lady about four years ago, and they’re expecting a baby soon. Every word that came out of his mouth was a powerful declaration of something that both his mom and especially his dad started a long time ago when he was a little child. This couple lives what marriage is about, which is the commitment of unconditional love before God and each other for God’s glory. This couple exemplifies what it means to be trained up in God’s ways. My hope is that as we keep on bringing up the subject of marriage, more people will take it to heart and walk in God’s plan. The result of this will be a generation of married couples who know what the true meaning of marriage is.