"Train Up A Child"

Scripture For The Day 

January 10th, 2023 

"Train Up A Child" 

 Sixteen years ago, we began attending a country church down the road. We immediately felt like we belonged. I was Blessed with getting to teach several of their children in PreK, years prior. I have watched their children grow and those children getting married and having babies of their own and then watching those children grow as well. Our own daughter got married there. My grandsons got dedicated there. My husband was ordained there. I have held different positions there but the most precious position is teaching and I take it seriously.  God’s Word tells me that I will be held to a higher accountability and honestly, that’s frightening.  I love my church family. When one of them does something good I teasingly claim ‘That’s because I was their Prek teacher or Sunday School teacher’. 😊 This past Sunday I found myself leading a belated Children’s Christmas program. It was short but oh so sweet. It reminded all of us of what The True meaning of Christmas is. And my heart swelled as the children got dressed in various costumes. My heart swelled with the chaos and noise from these little ones and not-so-little ones as we gathered in the back. My heart swelled as they sang songs about The LORD. My heart swelled as I asked them “Who are we here to Glorify?” and they shouted “JESUS”. Watching these mommies and daddies that I have watched grow corral their little ones overwhelmed my heart. I can’t tell y’all enough how much I love these people. I worry over them. I cry over them. I pray for them. When they hurt, I hurt. And my heart feels so urgent that we teach our children The Truth. Not out of some distorted obligation but out of love and concern and I feel like we are running out of time. That urgency is staying on my heart and I feel frustrated when the enemy distracts us. I feel like we waste so much time in this precious life that God has given us. We’ve seen how quickly a life can be taken and I have felt this urgency over the past year and it feels even more urgent as the days go by. If we don’t teach our children The Truth the enemy will definitely teach them lies. and that scares the life out of me. Our focus should always be on JESUS. Their sweet little minds are so vulnerable to the enemy and he is out to devour them, with what they see and with what they hear. This world is not our world and they need to understand that. They are around people more and more that don’t love The Lord. We are becoming desensitized to what we see and what we do. Being a Christian is not popular. The enemy has been slowly creeping into our lives and into our churches and laughing the entire time as we divert our attention to things that are not of The LORD.  We need to be focusing on doing all we can to teach The Word of God. So, that one day when we go home to be with Him, we will know that we’ve done all we could to prepare hearts to stand against the enemy and you know we can still have fun while we bring The Truth?  The enemy is not hiding anymore. He is right there among us.  When we love each other as a family we are naturally more concerned with doing all we can to keep them safe from all harm. When we get invested in each other we are more likely to be concerned and uplift each other in prayer. Brethren, Let’s Love each other. Stand for The Truth despite the lack of popular opinion. Let us guard our hearts against distractions and focus on The Word of God. Teach His Word.  

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” – Proverbs 22:6 “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” _ James 3:1 Translation… Brethren means brothers and sisters in Christ, and it goes on… not many of you should be teachers. I say this because as you know, we who teach will be judged more strictly than others.” 

Yikes, it may not scare y’all but it does me.