A Sure Path

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 211, A Sure Path.

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

This is probably the most quoted verse about raising children in the whole Bible. Anyone who has ever had a child, cared for a nephew, or taught Sunday school has heard this verse at least once. But do we really understand what it's saying?

Notice the first word: "train." In the original Hebrew, this word carries the sense of dedicating, consecrating, initiating someone into something from the very start. It isn't just teaching one lesson — it's shaping character over time, layer upon layer, day after day. And notice too: "in the way he should go." This suggests each child has their own path, their own way of being guided. It isn't a single mold pressed onto every child alike.

Then comes the promise: "even when he is old he will not depart from it." This is a proverb, not a guaranteed magic formula. Proverbs describe wise patterns of life — what normally happens when we plant good seeds. It isn't an automatic promise that every child of faithful parents will walk a straight line the whole way through. Many parents who truly love God have still wept over children who wandered for a season. That doesn't cancel their faithfulness, and it doesn't cancel God's.

But there's a deep truth here: what we plant in childhood has a way of coming back, sooner or later. Sometimes it takes years. Sometimes it takes decades. But the seed stays there, waiting for the right season.

I want to invite you to think in two directions today. First: who shaped you? What values, what faith, what character were planted in you as a child — even imperfectly? It's worth pausing to thank God for that. And if something was missing, if the formation you received was broken or absent, it's worth bringing that to God and asking Him to restore what was lost.

Second: who are you shaping right now? Maybe it's a child, a grandchild, a nephew, a student. Raising children isn't only the responsibility of biological parents — it's the responsibility of a whole community of faith surrounding each child.

So today, I want to invite you to choose one child under your care, in whatever form that takes, and invest in them one intentional moment of formation. A conversation. A prayer together. An example lived out in front of them.

Seeds planted today bear fruit in God's timing. Stay close to God. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.