To Train up A Child

Proper training always works on every child. To neglect training is to create miserable circumstances for yourself and your child. Out of innocent ignorance many of you have bypassed the training and expected the discipline alone to effect proper behavior.Just like when the headstrong young men join the military, they are first taught to stand still. The many hours of close-order-drill are simply to teach and reinforce submission of the will.”Attention” is the beginning of all maneuvers. Just think of the relief it would be if by one command you could gain the absolute, silent, concentrated attention of all your children. As in the military, all maneuvers in the home begin with a call to attention. Three-fourths of all home discipline problems would be instantly solved if you could at any time gain your child’s silent, unmoving attention.

In Proverbs 22:6”Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

Train up, not discipline up. Train up, not educate up. Training is the most obvious .missing element in child rearing. Training is not discipline.  A child will need more than “obedience training”, but without it everything else will be insufficient.

Parents should not wait until the child’s behavior becomes unacceptable before they commence training –that would be discipline. Discipline is a part of training but is insufficient in itself to effect proper behavior. Training is the conditioning of the child’s mind before the crisis arises; it is preparation for future, instant, unquestioning obedience. An athlete trains before he competes. Animals, including wild ones, are conditioned to respond to the trainers’ voice command.

By parents’ enforcement, their children are learning about moral, government, duty, responsibility and, in the event of failure, accountability, rewards and punishment. In the here and now, they are also learning to touch, which makes a child’s social life a lot more pleasant.

All children are trained, some carelessly or negligently, and some, with varied degrees of forethought. All parental responses are conditioning the child’s behavior and are therefore training.