“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
The Hebrew word *ḥānak* (train up) was used for breaking in a horse or dedicating a temple — it implies an intentional, formative act, not passive hoping.
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Bible Verses About Parenting & Children
Parenting is one of the most holy and exhausting things a human being can do. You are not just raising a child — you are shaping someone who will outlive you. God knew that when he entrusted them to you.
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“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Formation happens in ordinary life — mealtimes, errands, bedtime — not just in church or formal instruction.
“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
Heritage (*naḥălāh*) is an allotted portion held in trust — your children are God's before they are yours.
“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Paul balances authority with tenderness — discipline is necessary, but so is knowing when your demands are breaking rather than forming.
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
The point is not harshness — it's that love does not avoid the hard work of correction. Discipline is an act of care, not of rejection.
Theological Context
Psalm 127:3 calls children a "heritage of the LORD" — the word *naḥălāh* refers to a portion allotted by God, something received by inheritance, held in trust. Children don't belong to you in the way possessions do; they're entrusted to you for a season, for a purpose, by someone who cares about them more than you do.
Deuteronomy 6:7 is the great parenting passage of the Hebrew Bible. Moses tells Israel to teach the commandments of God "diligently" — the word is *šānan*, which means to sharpen, to engrave. The image is incision, not decoration. And the context isn't formal instruction: it's when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. Formation happens in ordinary moments far more than in planned ones.
The Charismatic tradition emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is a genuine participant in raising children. You pray over them, you speak life into them, you trust that God's purposes for a child you don't fully understand are being worked out through your faithful, imperfect presence.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
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What Most Readers Miss
Proverbs 22:6 — "Train up a child in the way he should go" — is probably the most quoted parenting verse in Protestant Christianity. It's often preached as a promise: do this, and your child will turn out right. But the Hebrew is more interesting than that. "The way he should go" — *derek* — can mean the right path, but it can also mean *his* way, the path suited to his particular nature.
Some rabbinical interpreters read it as: train a child *according to his own way* — observe who he is, and direct him along the grain of his particular gifts and temperament. This isn't license for a child to do whatever he wants; it's a call for parents to pay attention rather than impose a generic mold. The verse may be less about results you can guarantee and more about wisdom you're called to exercise.
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