Train Up A Child in the Way

REFLECTION QUOTES

Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door
I know that I’m a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I’m a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him
in the living years

You say you just don’t see it
He says it’s perfect sense
You just can’t get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talkin’ in defense
So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It’s the bitterness that lasts

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It’s too late when we die
To admit we don’t see eye to eye

~“The Living Years” by Mike & the Mechanics (1989)

“We live in a time when high self-esteem is encouraged from childhood, when young people have more freedom and independence than ever, but also far more depression, anxiety, cynicism, and loneliness… More than any other generation in history, the children of Baby Boomers are disappointed by what they find when they arrive at adulthood.”

~Dr. Jean Twenge, professor of Psychology
at San Diego State University in her book
Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans
Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—
and More Miserable Than Ever Before

“…[U]nderlying all this parental angst is the hopeful belief that if we just make the right choices, that if we just do things a certain way, our kids will turn out to be not just happy adults, but adults that make us happy.”

~Lori Gottlieb, “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy” (The Atlantic, July/August 2011)

“We’re [parents] always bluffing, pretending we know best, when most of the time we’re just praying we won’t screw up too badly.”

~Jodi Picoult in House Rules

SERMON PASSAGE

Selections from Proverbs

7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. (1:7)

1My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
2 For length of days and years of life,
And peace they will add to you.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight. (3:1-2, 5-6)

27Cease listening, my son, to discipline and you will stray from the words of knowledge. (19:27)

1A wise son makes a father glad,

But a foolish son is a grief to his mother. (10:1)

3A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad,
But he who keeps company with harlots wastes his wealth. (29:3)

1A wise son accepts his father’s discipline,

But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. (13:1)

32He who neglects discipline despises himself,

But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.
33The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom,

And before honor comes humility. (15:32-33)

12There is a way which seems right to a man,

But its end is the way of death. (14:12)

24He who withholds his rod hates his son,

But he who loves him disciplines him diligently. (13:24)

15The rod and reproof give wisdom,
But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother. (29:15)

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

17The eye that mocks a father,
And scorns a mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it. (30:17)

18Discipline your son while there is hope,

And do not desire his death. (19:18)

5Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
He who guards himself will be far from them.
6Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it. (22:5-6)