This is the fifth of 25 special reflections based on lessons I learned from my mother. These will run from my birthday on October 27 until her birthday on November 20.
Read
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
Reflect
Before I was born, Mom was a high school music teacher. She was also “Miss Judy” on the Odessa, Texas, version of “Romper Room,” the syndicated children’s show with the “Do Bee” song and the Magic Mirror. She loved teaching children and might have been in her best element when she was teaching them to sing or play piano.
That’s what made her such a good teacher to her own children. All of us learned to read very early. For me, it was at the age of three, and I was reading short books by the time I went into first grade. I was probably gifted, but honestly, I can’t take a lot of credit for any of my academic abilities. Anything I learned, I learned from Mom. The only thing she wasn’t able to teach me was how to play piano, and that’s because I was so stubborn and basically refused to practice.
But all of the important things I learned from Mom – honor, decency, goodness, kindness, generosity, love. And she taught me how to sing, which I appreciate every day because my heart soars when I lift my voice in praise to the Lord, just as she did.
Solomon admonished us to “train up a child in the way he should go,” and that’s not just discipline. That training or teaching extends to all of the abilities and qualities you want your child to embody as he or she matures and grows. If you want a responsible adult, train up a responsible child. If you want an industrious adult, train up an industrious child. If you want a godly adult, train up a godly child.
By the same token, if you want a disrespectful, lazy, defiant, selfish adult, train up a disrespectful, lazy, defiant, selfish child. Of course, people will say that no one trains such a person, but I disagree. If you don’t teach respect, you’ll naturally get disrespect. If you don’t teach hard work, you’ll tend to get laziness. If you don’t teach obedience, you’ll get its opposite – defiance. And if you don’t teach generosity, you’ll usually get another opposite – selfishness. Look around you as you go through your day and you’ll notice a lot of people with those qualities. Those aspects didn’t just show up when the people turned 21 – they were most likely instilled when those people were children.
If you have children (or grandchildren), make a plan to be your child’s (or grandchild’s) first teacher. Make a plan to teach them all of the qualities you cherish. Just as Solomon promised, whatever you teach them will never depart from them, even when they’re old and gray.
Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.
