Corralling the Child, Proverbs 22:6
This past week in Muskegon,
Paris Hilton, the heiress to the Hilton fortune is serving time in jail for her willful and childish behavior—she was sentenced for 45 days for driving drunk and without a license.
Rather than jerking our kids up by the hair of their head, we need to train them up from the heart. Train is a word that is associated with the training of an animal, dropping a hedge about him from all others, and corralling him independently from all others. Working with him one on one as if he were the only one you had and you only had one shot at working with him.. Each day missed would be a day of forfeit that could never be regained. Mr. Spurgeon said: “Train him in the way you wished that you were trained”. I say train him in the way God wants him trained. He is going to live somewhere forever, corral and train him how to live there!
Corral him as he is growing up—growing older. Each day he grows older and each day he needs to be trained. Every child is a special child who needs special attention for his own good and for the good of others. It is not fair to him or for those around him for this child to behave in a selfish way. No one should have to live next door to a neighbor who grew up acting like a monster. Corral him as early as possible and train him as long as possible.
Corral this child and train up him in the way he should go. One day each of us will either go up to heaven or go down to hell. We only have one life to live ; we are either traveling up on the narrow way which is right in the middle of the wide and broad way which leads down to hell. Since God’s ways are not our ways, this special child needs to be trained in God’s way. Are your children saved and traveling upward? Any questions!
Corral this child when he is a child and as he grows old, he will not depart from it. If you write it on the door post in your home, pray it at family altars, say it in the way, live it in their presence, enforce it daily, it will never leave them. It will ever be before him night and day. As he is growing and as he is being trained, he will not and can not depart from the daily training. Oh, I hear some say, let him be a child! You will ruin him with all that old fashioned stuff. It didn’t ruin Moses, it didn’t ruin Daniel, it didn’t ruin Jesus, it didn’t ruin Timothy, it didn’t ruin John and Charles Wesley, it didn’t ruin Dr. James Dobson (who was saved at the age of 3 years old), and it didn’t ruin me. Don’t be spooked by Dr. Spock who never reared a child.
Corral this child and disciple him by discipline. “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” (Proverbs 22:15). Never be afraid to apply the rod of correction to the seat of learning. God took extra pains when creating us to pad certain areas of these anatomies for more than just sitting down! If you beat him, he shall not die.
Corral this child and one day this child will become a man. He will reflect on how he has been trained and who trained him. When as a child he acted like a child, when he becomes a man he will put away childish things. He will not get hurt by our sensual activities and he will never break your heart by his stupidity. You only have one time to train him; it’s late, but not too late, so get busy!
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