TITLE: Successful Momming
TEXT: Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
PROPOSITION: There is a skill to proper training.
QUESTION: How?
KEY WORD: Requirements
SCRIPTURE READING: Same

INTRODUCTION:

1. Motherhood does not carry the same meaning as in the past.

   1. 1970 – 53% - best part of being a woman – motherhood

   2. 1983 – 26% - best part of being a woman – motherhood

   3. 2000 – 20% - best part of being a woman – motherhood

2. Mothers are critical – primary caregivers

3. Children do not come with an instruction manual

4. The Bible gives some keys to being “successful momming”

Train up your child

1. Popular verse – often misunderstood

2. Mothers worry about how their children are being raised

3. Usual interpretation:

   1. Take them to Sunday School, church, VBS

   2. Teach them Bible songs – Jesus Loves Me

   3. Say prayers at mealtime and bedtime

   4. Send them to church camp, youth rallies, Christian College

   5. They will turn out to be faithful Christians – preacher, elder, SS teacher

4. You and I know – That it does not always work out that way.

5. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 - ¹⁸“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, ¹⁹then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. ²⁰And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

   1. This passage rejects the common view of Proverbs 22:6

   2. It is possible for a child trained right to go astray

6. Train your child in the manner befitting the child

   1. Literally – “in accordance with his way”

   2. Use words, concepts, the child can understand

   3. Give rules, set punishments the child can comprehend

   4. Each child is different – different traits, characteristics, mood, mannerisms, reactions

      1. Punishment must fit the “crime”

      2. Punishment must also fit the child

   5. Discipline that works for one child will not work for the next one

Children have “bents” (traits, personalities, reactions, interests, values)

1. Grooming the good bents

   1. Cultivate the skills and abilities of each child

   2. Soccer, flute, baseball, piano, art, karate

2. Don’t make them fulfill your fantasy

   1. Football star, beauty queen

   2. Sports vs. art or music

3. Oppose the bad bents

   1. Many other influences – friends, school, movies, TV

   2. They will pick up bad habits,

   3. Police their environment – control what you can

When he is old he will not depart

1. Does not encourage sowing wild oats, then repent late in life

2. This may work out sometimes – not always, or even usually

3. James Dobson – survey of 853 parents of rebellious children

   1. 53% now accept parents values

   2. 32% somewhat accept parents values

   3. 15% still reject their values

4. This means the properly trained child should stick to the course

You Know You're A Mom When...

1. Your feet stick to grape jelly on the kitchen floor..... and you don't care.

2. When the kids are fighting, you threaten to lock them in a room together and not let them out until someone's bleeding.

3. You can't find your cordless phone, so you ask a friend to call you, and you run around the house madly, following the sound until you locate the phone downstairs in the laundry basket.

4. Popsicles become a food staple.

5. Your favorite television show is a cartoon.

6. You're so desperate for adult conversation that you spill your guts to the telemarketer that calls and HE hangs up on YOU!

7. Spit is your number one cleaning agent.

8. You buy cereal with marshmallows in it.

9. You count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal.

10. You hide in the bathroom to be alone.

11. You cling to the high moral ground on toy weapons; but your child chews his toast into the shape of a gun anyway.