There are few things in life as satisfying as finding a great shortcut. We enjoy shortcuts so much, we try to find them for everything possible.
With things like driving and cooking, shortcuts can be great, but are they great for everything? No. As a matter of fact, they’re not.
Shortcuts are great for things that are not personal or too complex. When it comes to matters of the heart, or complex challenges, there are no shortcuts to meaningful solutions.
What do I have in mind? The raising and training of children.
What is more challenging and complex and complicated than raising and training children in the way that they should go?
I understand that it’s tempting to want there to be an easy solution, but that’s just not the way it is.
Proverbs 22:6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
In the Hebrew, train up, is the Hebrew word, hanak, which is also translated as “dedicate” in other places in the Bible. Both are good translations. We understand that training requires dedication.
The most literal translation of the word is very interesting. The word, hanak, most literally means, “to make narrow.” So what does it mean to make a child narrow?
Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with being narrow-minded, so don’t get the wrong idea. To make narrow means to have a single-minded focus. This makes sense when we consider those who have the most single-minded focus, Olympic athletes.
Is there anyone in the world who trains harder and is more dedicated to anything that and Olympic athlete? They spend years and years of their lives doing one thing and one thing only. Their dedication and training are second to none.
So now consider the Proverb again. To train up a child isn’t simply to dedicate the child in some ceremony, but to train that child with an intense, single-minded dedication. But then comes the question, “To what do we train our children to be dedicated to?” It’s not a what, but a who. We train our children to be dedicated to God with a single-minded intensity so that He permeates their thinking, speaking and actions in all areas of life.
This training is our responsibility and there are no shortcuts.
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
