“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.”     Proverbs 22:1 NKJV

Children today are out of control! Nowhere is the lack of discipline more evident than in churches. To Christian parents everywhere let me just say, “Train your children!”

My wife, Bobbi, and I have been married for over twenty-five years and have raised four daughters of our own. We also took in one of our girl’s friends when she was in junior high school and count her as our daughter as well. All but the youngest are now serving God in various capacities as responsible young women. We are far from “authorities” on child-raising, but we have learned a few things about parenting along the way that might help others. So today, I would like to share from my experience a couple of scriptural pointers on training godly children.

First of all, don’t lose heart if you struggle to discipline your children properly. It’s not all your fault and it is not that big of a deal to turn your situation around. Successive generations of deteriorating values in the American family have created a scenario where so many parents were never disciplined properly as children themselves.

This was true in my case to a degree. Not being raised in a serious Christian home, and without a father, I had to learn how to raise my own children on the fly. Thankfully, my wife was more fortunate in some ways and helped me grow and change along the way. Take help wherever God sends it, but realize you probably need a lot of it!

Second, begin to learn how God thinks by reading the Bible and then apply His values to your family’s lifestyle. Our verse for today is a good place to start along with the entire twenty-second chapter of Proverbs. In this book of wise sayings, this chapter seems to be especially geared toward wisdom for raising children. If your kids can see you sincerely working at being a better person they will naturally become that way themselves.

I once read a study that showed how many money addicts are the children of parents who were too busy to respond to their simple need for attention. Therefore, they never stop trying to obtain withheld applause and human attention that only money seems to bring! We can teach our kids many valuable things by simply loving God enough to choose His ways over the things this world has to offer…as a result they will spend their lives seeking to do the same!