NURSERY SCHOOL GRADUATION
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6.
Yesterday, that scripture was my verse for meditation (focused thinking, confessing). I decided to break it up and study the Hebrew root words. The word translated as train is “chanak” which literally means to dedicate or to train up. the word translated as child is “naar” which means: a boy, lad, youth, retainer; from the age of infancy to adolescence. The phrase “the way he should go” also refers to a course of life a person should follow. As I was going through the verse I realized that the phrase “the way he should go” is very important.
If you are like me, your well meaning and loving parents may not have known the Lord or lived lives submitted to him and so they brought you up in the way that you should NOT go. Even though pain is involved in turning and taking the way the one should go, God in his mercy is very gracious to give us a chance of coming to know him without our parents and family. So, I realized that the guarantee that God gives that “when he is old he will not turn from it” is only for children who are trained in the way they should go. Many others who aren’t are by necessity moved by God to turn from the wrong way they were trained and go the right way they should have been trained to go from the beginning. I also noticed that while this training begins with salvation through Christ, it doesn’t end there. Every human being has a purpose and a plan for his life.
Every person has a God given purpose and plan for his life.
This purpose is decided even before the child is conceived (Jeremiah 1). If a child is trained up in a way that lines up with the purpose of God for his life, then he is guaranteed that when he is old, he will not turn from it. Why? Because he is already walking in the purpose and plan of God for his life. He may only need to go further into it, but doesn’t need to turn from it. The boy Samuel comes to mind. In 1 Samuel 3:1 Amp, the bible says “NOW THE boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli.” Because Samuel ministered to the Lord, God spoke to Samuel at an early age and revealed some powerful prophesies to him. That kicked off his calling as a prophet. Our children can be brought up like Samuel. We don’t have to take them to a pastor to grow up with them and serve God there because parents (particularly the father) are given the responsibility of priests in their homes. So children should be trained to serve God assisting their parents as Samuel did to Eli. Such service helps teach the children to know God early, hear his voice through reading his words in the bible and through other means (dreams, visions etc). Then God will guide the heart of both the parents and children towards picking the right career path or ministry path for the children–one that will please God and will be “the way they should go” guaranteeing that they won’t depart from it when they are old. They may have unforeseen twists and turns, but not turning.
The Shaping Destiny children are being trained up in “the way they should go.”
With the Shaping Destiny kids that you are helping take care of, you are training them in the way they should go. They have evening and morning devotions, and are taught to serve God with us. They have a hospital ministry where they teach the gospel and serve the needs of poor patients.
Many children share the gospel with their friends and their friends come to know the Lord. Right now, older boys and girls who are 16-17 years old are accompanying the staff on trips to seek and save other suffering orphans. And they love it! We are also training them academically, empowering them to grow into successful men and women that fear and love God. All children are important to God. We pray that we will all pray and continue to train the children that live in our homes as we are training the children (orphans) that live far away.