“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
August 5, 2022
Are you training your children? The entry for the word train in the dictionary says this: to prepare for a contest, to instruct by exercise, to drill, to form to a proper shape, to discipline for use. You don’t learn how to play basketball by reading a book. You are trained. You are coached. Likewise, you have to train and coach your children. You have to pray. You have to teach. You have to plead. You have to show by example. Do you have your children in a Bible-believing church? Do you have them in Sunday School under a Christian teacher? Are you training in the home by precept and by example? We’re to train. If you teach a child and that’s all you do, you’ll teach him or her one thing, but somebody else can come along and teach them something else. But when you train, they get something through the pores of their skin into their very psyche. There’s a difference between teaching and training.
Write out a list of disciplines you want to develop in your life and the lives of your children, then make a plan for how you will begin developing those disciplines.
I try to unplug each morning with Jesus with just my rocking chair, my Bible, and a pen.
Having a secret place is very important because I know that Jesus is always there waiting for me. I know where I can find Him! His presence is everywhere, but there are places where it is so thick you can cut it with a knife. You may not even have a front porch, but there is a secret place for you as well. God’s invitations are for anyone who will respond. There is no more important request than the one found in Psalm 27:8: “My heart has heard You say, ‘Come and talk with Me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming.’”