"Train up a child.."Prov. 22:6
God created man that He might have fellowship with him. When sin broke this fellowship God initiated a plan whereby it might be restored. No life is a success unless it has been used as a preparation for the next life. Regardless of the accomplishments a person makes, his life is a failure unless he is prepared for dying. Now what does this have to do with early childhood? Simply this: A child that is taught reverence for God when he is yet too young to understand the plan of redemption will quickly accept Christ when he is old enough to understand what it is all about. One of the great secrets to making this kind of an early response is to have developed in childhood a deep and an abiding reverence for God. The wise parent will prepare his child for acceptance of salvation and dedication of life by teaching him how to attain such reverence.
1. He should be taught to respect all kinds of superiority, such as old age, skill, scholarship, parents, teachers, leaders, etc. As he respects superiority, he will then by force of habit respect the greatest Superiority of all when he comes to understand what salvation is all about.
2. He should be taught to have in his disciplined schedule a quiet time. This is time he should spend alone talking to and thinking about God. This should be done at the same time every day and should be done without fail. He is developing a habit that will render him blessings and success in later life.
3. He should be shown the universe and its grandeur. Read to him Psalms 8 and 19. Take him for a walk at night and show him the wonders and the immensity of the heavens. Teach him to say, "Twinkle, twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky," Teach your child, "Star light, star bright, First star I've seen tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight." Tell him that God made the heavens. Explain to him that most of those stars are bigger than our earth. Tell him how far away they are and how wonderful is God's universe. Teach him that God made the universe. Lead him to stand in awe over the greatness of God and the wonders of the heavens.
4. He should be taught of the wonders of life. Show him ants, bees, etc. who live in our world and yet, in a sense, who live each in his own world. Tell him off the ant, for example. Read in an encyclopedia some of the characteristics of the ant. Let the child become intrigued with the intelligence of some supreme being, even our God, Who made the wonders of nature. Teach him to believe in God because of the arrangement of God's world. This kind of reverence comes from knowledge rather than superstition. Realization of the wonder and beauty of God's world will lead the child to have reverence for the Creator. Show him the plants in the spring and the trees in the autumn. Let him see the cloud formations, the sunset, the early morning, the big dipper, the little dipper, the milky way, and the evening star. Let him hear the birds sing. Constantly call his attention to these things, reminding him Who is behind it all. At the end of each day ask the child what he has seen today that is beautiful and that was made by God. Make this a little ritual. See to it that the little child's mind is fixed upon God regularly at he same time every day. See that he interweaves the day's activities with the workings of God. This will create habits that will be with him all of his life.
5. Indelibly imprint in the mind of the little child that the Bible is the Word of god and that Jesus is the Son of God. When I was a little boy my mother used to hold the Bible before me and say, "Son, the Bible is the Word of God. Say it, son." I would repeat, "The Bible is the Word of God." Again and again this was repeated. Then my mother would say, "Son, the Bible is about Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. Say it, son." I would then reply, "Jesus is the Son of God." Then she would ask me to say it again and again and again and again until it was indelibly imprinted in my mind: the Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is the Son of God! Charles Darwin with his theory of evolution has turned many young lives away from the Bible and God. It is said that when he was a young man he was a great lover of poetry, but because of his desire for scientific achievement did not develop this side of his nature. Later when he had time to enjoy poetry he found he could not enjoy it, for he had not developed this particular appetite and it had died from inactivity. It is so important that our children not only be taught reverence, but they must be taught to have reverence and to offer reverence and adoration to God even before they are old enough to know how to be saved.
6. When the little child has done wrong, explain to him that the punishment you are giving is given from God and that you are acting as God's representative in meting out the punishment. Let Him know that it is not the parent who sets right and wrong or determines what is sin; it is God Who does that. Let the child know that it is not the parent's idea to punish but hat he has been instructed by God to punish. On the other hand, let the child know that the good things which happen to him and are done for him and given to him by the parent are actually gifts from God. In other words, that which the parent does for and to the child which is Scriptural should be explained to the child. he should know that the things we do to and for him which are Scriptural are things we do at God's command. This will make God part of our every day conversation and the child will grow up not feeling ill at ease when he talks about God. 7. The child should be taught to respect the man of God and revere his office. A little girl once drew a picture. Her father asked her what the picture was. She replied, "It is a picture of God." The father chuckled and said, "Well, sweetheart, no one knows what God looks like." "They do now," the child replied. Dr. John Rice has a grandson who went to health class at school and came home and told his parents, "Today we learned all about mouth-to-mouth recreation!" Yes, children are impressionable and if they can be taught reverence for God, it will be much easier for them to accept God's Christ when they understand that He died for them. Of course, reverence should be created with a constant emphasis on high ideals and morals and with the proper example from the mother and father.
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