*How?*

Lately, it seems like more than ever I am bombarded by worldly things. I feel like I can barely turn on the TV anymore to be honest. With every passing year it seems to get worse and worse and the narrow road seems to get even smaller. As I look around and see what this world values, I start to wonder how I am supposed to parent in a generation like this.

"Train up a child in the way he should go,
 and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

I think of that verse often and of the promise that it gives. I think about how thankful I am for these years that my baby doesn't know about all that's out there and how he still thinks the world is only good. The biggest problem in his life right now is waiting that stressful five seconds when he sees the bottle and has to wait until it makes it to his mouth. 

I think of the word "train" and how training for something is always hard. Nothing about getting my child to hold tightly to the way I raise him will be easy. I have many important years in my future where I will cling daily to the promise that God will help him not depart from the road we are teaching him to love. 

How do I teach my baby to love the word of God? How do I teach him to let all other voices in his life fade away in comparison to what is written there? My prayer for my son is the same prayer that God prayed about the disciples before he was taken prisoner:

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." John 17:15-17

How do I teach him how valuable he is and that God made him because he wanted him as his own. How do I make sure he knows the importance of being an adopted child of God? 

How do I teach him to love and enjoy God? How do I show him the fun side of God? How do I let him know just how much He loves to be a part of his laughter?

How do I teach my child in a world that wants acceptance that being rejected by certain people is a GOOD thing? There are some people I know that would say my thinking is completely backwards and I'm extremely relieved for that. If they did think I was right, then I would not be in the place I wanted to be. Not at all. 

How do I teach him that the things we should do are the things that don't come naturally? How do I teach him that there's a war raging inside of him? How do I teach him that the right thing to do is not always easy, in fact it can be really hard.

How can I make him understand that sometimes feeling bad can be a good thing because it teaches us right and wrong. How can I make the most of discipline and do it in the right way? How can I let him know that being told NO can be the best thing that ever happened to him.

How do I tell him who God is? How can I even begin to be equipped enough for that? I ask myself questions like this all the time and I've come up with a few answers so far: 

1.) Pray a lot and ask for help

2.) Show him with my life and not ask him to do anything that I don't do myself. I need to constantly be working on myself  and seeking God first. How can I expect him to be something I'm not and to have a passionate love for something I don't? (Scary thought!)

3.)Rely on God to open his spiritual eyes and ears and give him a love relationship that I can't. Because the true change in the sinful human heart is an encounter with Jesus Himself.

I feel so ill equipped for all this, but that's where God comes in. At least I have a little time to figure out exactly what the word "TRAIN" is referring to. Right now he's still just Mr. Smiley with no sign of ever doing anything wrong. He still believes that the most important thing in life is his mom which is pretty fun, but I'm ready for him to know the true meaning of life. Because it sure isn't me.