Parents sometimes puzzle over the proverb, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6. But can a mother be sure the training she gives will lead her child to resist negative influences and to follow the path most beneficial to him?
A closer look at the quotation may provide some answers. In the first part it voices a conviction that the moral and spiritual training of the child is a parental responsibility and it should begin as early as possible, while the child's thought is most tractable. The second part points to the generally accepted sentiment of the time that the greatest joy a parent can have is a wise son or daughter. A more spiritual interpretation might be that the greatest happiness to be had by parent or child is in loving and obeying God and that the one who experiences the meekness of spiritual living is not likely to "depart from it."
Obedience to spiritual law is practical. When this is felt on a daily basis it is most effective in strengthening the child's natural inclination to be good.
