Wood Smoke
Senior Member
I've read this verse several times lately and contemplated how relationships between parents and adult children vary in today's world. This commentary is from the Jeremiah Study Bible, and it speaks well to encourage good parents. Sometimes, adult children just have to find things out the hard way for themselves and endure consequences from their own poor decisions when they purposely chose dishonesty, disrespect, and dishonor toward their parents who otherwise "raised them right".
Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
“Tough Questions : Does this verse guarantee that good parenting will produce great children?”
“No. Godly parents can have children who go astray. Conversely, the children of terrible parents can overcome their upbringing and turn out great.
Some parents, interpreting this verse as a promise, have tried to very carefully “train up [their children] in the way [they] should go,” only to see those children stray from that godly training. A proverb is not a promise. It is a literary device that highlights a general truth. Many of the proverbs in this book are not absolute guarantees because the truths they express must be conditioned by prevailing circumstances. Proverbs are generally and usually true, but occasional exceptions may be noted.
When children from a Christian home go astray, their parents often carry a load of guilt and self-recrimination: What should I have done differently? Where could I have done better? But each person is responsible before God for his or her actions – our adult children included.”
The Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV, page 833.
Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
“Tough Questions : Does this verse guarantee that good parenting will produce great children?”
“No. Godly parents can have children who go astray. Conversely, the children of terrible parents can overcome their upbringing and turn out great.
Some parents, interpreting this verse as a promise, have tried to very carefully “train up [their children] in the way [they] should go,” only to see those children stray from that godly training. A proverb is not a promise. It is a literary device that highlights a general truth. Many of the proverbs in this book are not absolute guarantees because the truths they express must be conditioned by prevailing circumstances. Proverbs are generally and usually true, but occasional exceptions may be noted.
When children from a Christian home go astray, their parents often carry a load of guilt and self-recrimination: What should I have done differently? Where could I have done better? But each person is responsible before God for his or her actions – our adult children included.”
The Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV, page 833.