Train up a child...

As a teenager I worked many long days raising strawberries.  There was the preparation of the soil, fertilizing, setting out the plants and training the young plants to grow in rows and not in some hap hazard design of their own.  There was the hoeing and “plowing the middles” to keep down the weeds. Then, there was the mulching with straw.  It was long hard work before anyone realized any fruit.

In our neighborhood I saw others who just took a casual approach to raising strawberries.  If they made a good crop, fine.  If not, they did not worry over it.  Their strawberry patch looked like a patch of weeds and briars.

So, when I was grown and was married and children came along I bristled a little to hear someone say to my wife or me, “Your children are growing just like weeds.”  Of course, I realize that they meant it as a compliment, not an insult.  But, she and I have wanted people to see our children, not as weeds which require no cultivation or training, but as tender plants in a garden receiving special attention and care.

The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)  Just as those strawberry vines required special training to grow properly, so our children cannot be left to themselves to turn out right.  Parents, Grandparents, we must be involved if our children are going to turn out right and not resemble a garden of weeds.