Train Up Children in the Way They Should God - Proverbs 22

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.

This was probably the first proverb I ever memorized.   It was required work in my home as we grew up.   It was supposed to be impressed that my parents were raising me the way God wanted me and that was the way I was supposed to go and would go.  Hopefully they were not far off.   This proverb sounds much like a promise as well as a principle.  (Treating the proverbs as promises vs principles, or both, is a blog for another day.)  I do think Solomon is telling us that proper training yields proper results.  I don't think anyone can really, in a perfect manner, train a child up exactly as he/she should go, so the results in real life will be mixed.   I don't think a child will ever, with their depraved mind, accept all the training they receive so in real life the results will be mixed.   But, the goal is to train a child up "in the way he/she should go."  Let the results be in God's hands.   I do think their are two aspects of what he means, "in the way he/she should go."   One aspect is obviously the "way of the Lord."  That is the way we know he/she should go so it is not hard to miss.   That is putting the emphasis on the "should" part of the verse.   However, I think there might be some emphasis on the "way he" aspect of the proverb.  Everyone has a unique way they are born and should live their life.  They have a personal DNA - I call it their "appe-type" - their hunger - the type of way they want to live.    I think when we can raise our children to approach life in their particular DNA - Appey-type, but per God's plan, we have a recipe for success.  Each child needs to know how God's Word and God's plan fits into his/her unique hunger for life.   We can't bend them to one mold.  We must introduce God's Word and show them how to bend their life hunger to God's plan through the Spirit of God.    Train them up in the "way" they "should" go.   So the answer might be both.  We are to train children in their particular way and how that particular way is to be submissive to God’s way, His Word.