Train Up a Child

Train up a child in the way he should; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 ESV.

I’m continually impressed with my big girl.

She, even at this young age, has a love for God that is so strong. She loves learning about him and shares stories of the Bible with everyone she meets. She is already sharing her love for God--something that as an adult, I still struggle with.

At 6 years old, she knows she struggles with certain sins and I make sure she knows that she is not alone. That we all are sinners. But she also knows that Christ came and died for us, to pay the price for our sins. Because of this knowledge, she continually focuses herself back to Christ.

She has watched me spend my time with God over the last 6 years (not as consistently as I'd like, but she has seen the effort!) and has realized that it is not just important, but vital for the Christian. She now seeks that time herself.

She can’t read her Bible by herself yet, but reads with me, and looks at the pictures in her kids Bible on her own. She is now remembering many of the stories in the Beginners Bible and is “reading” them to her little sister.

I don't say this to brag. This isn’t my doing. This is the Holy Spirit already at work in her.

She sings along with praise music that she asks me to put on and has begun making up her own praise lyrics (and I need to start writing them down so they aren’t lost!). She says that when she grows up, she wants to sing on the worship team. At six, she knows how important it is to praise God.

This big girl of mine, she is something special!

How fortunate that I see her worth and am invested in her life to fold her where she bends.

Society tells us that children are not important, that they are something to be spoiled with evil schemes everywhere. We can't go a day without hearing another news story about the things being taught in schools or shown in kids media. It's everywhere.

But Christ tells us to become like the little child; to let the little children come to him.

We live in the world, but I am grateful that I can shape a world around her that is not of this world. That I can protect her innocence a little bit longer. That she can seek the Lord fully without the ridicule of the world.

I pray her faith grows strong in her time at home, so that when she does venture into the world, she is not shaken, but knows on which Rock she stands.