Proverbs 22:6

I was hanging out with some of my girlfriends last night and in our conversation, I brought up Proverbs 22:6 (not that I'm always quoting scripture when I'm hanging out ... but it just came to mind when we were talking).

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

The reason why I brought it up was because we were talking about well-known people in the Christian world who "seemed" to raise their children in the ways of the Lord, but it seems that there is no fruit of their belief in the way that they live. You would obviously have to question what training those children were actually receiving (and these children are not at the end of their life yet ... the verse above says "old"), because I think the Bible is very clear in how we are to raise our children: Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6, and Colossians 3 to name a few. And when we impress these truths on their hearts, surround them with godly wisdom, the outflow of those truths in their hearts will be evident in the way they live. Not to say that their hearts will always be receptive to that training ... we need to be in constant prayer for our children ... but that's the general idea.

And so if we look back at Proverbs 22:6, I am amazed at God's sovereignty in the promise of this verse. He says that if we train our children in the ways of the Lord, when they are old, they will not turn from that truth. It's hard for my feeble human mind to grasp that when I understand that a child has free will and can choose whether or not to follow the ways of the Lord, but then I have to remember that God is God, and because he says this, IT IS. Praise God! I just need to pray like heck that God will equip me with everything I need to raise my child in His ways so that I can see this verse come to fruition in his life.

Thoughts?