Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Carolyn Mahaney on Training Up Young Children

So back to what I was saying. We went to see “The Miracle Worker.” Most likely, you are familiar with the plot. It’s the story of Annie Sullivan’s struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate. Initially Annie found it extremely difficult to teach Helen due to her wild and violent behavior. But then Annie had a revelatory moment. All of a sudden she realized: "Obedience is the gateway for knowledge to enter the mind." She understood that she needed to first teach Helen to obey before she could teach her knowledge.

At this point in the play I couldn’t help but think of my daughters, Nicole and Kristin. That’s what they are doing. They are attempting to train and discipline four little boys to obey so they can impart knowledge. And not just any knowledge, but the most important knowledge of all—the message of the gospel.

So to all moms with little children I desire to encourage you today. I want to cheer you on in your efforts to discipline and train your children to obey. It’s hard, exhausting work, I know. Just watching my daughters makes me tired. But it’s worth it. Because an obedient child is a receptive child. And with a receptive child you can teach them the good news, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Now that’s a goal worth striving for, don’t you agree?

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Prov. 22.6


Click Here for the rest of Carolyn's Article

Our teaching Elder Ryan Kelly has been going through the book of Proverbs for the past several weeks, and he now is focusing on almost a mini-series of Parenting and what Proverbs says about this important issue. 
Download Ryan's first sermon of this mini-series titled "Wisdom and Parenting with Toughness" here.

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