God’s Word tells us of mother’s influence upon her children.

“When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice;  and I am persuaded that in thee also.”
II Timothy 1:5

Timothy was very blessed in having a grandmother and a mother who would teach him as a young child God’s Word.

“And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”    II Timothy 3:15

I knew with a husband who was a new Christian, and three sons, the teaching responsibility would be up to me, and to set their feet in the paths of righteousness.  It is said girls are hard to raise, and it may be true, however,  boys have their own unique challenges as well, so either boys or girls, rearing children in the Biblical way is a challenge.

There is another truism which applies here.  “As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.”  I have watched as my friend would start new azalea bushes by merely placing a brick on the limb, and it would root from there.  The same applies to young people.  A weight on the south, and it will grow into a tree leaning in that direction.  On the other hand, if we apply the weight to the north, it will grow in that direction, and too much weight will ruin the tree.

“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 asked a preacher about this verse once, and what would happen if the child was taught correctly and they strayed.  He told me it could happen, and the young person may stray from the paths of right, and sometimes you may believe the young person may never return, but sooner or later the teaching, prayerfully, will flash upon their minds calling them back from the wrong path.

My middle son became involved in a fight once with a young man during a basketball game.  The coach was out of the gym, but our son knew he should not have gotten out of control, but both young men did. When in the principal’s office that day, the principal told him.  “Son, you are never going to be able to do things which are wrong, for you have been brought up differently than others kids.”  I have remembered his words.  He was right.  My son learned a valuable lesson that day.  He tried to blame the coach for being gone, but we didn’t let him by with the excuse.  We told him he knew what was right regardless of whether the coach was there or not, and he was to blame.  He never forgot the instruction.

John Randolf once said:  “I should have been a French atheist if it had not been for one recollection, and that was that my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers, and cause me, on my knees, to say, ‘Our Father which are in heaven. . . .'”

“Of all the human names held sacred in memory, that of mother falls upon our hearts with the most sublime influence.  How sweet in after years are the recollections of a mother’s patient training.  How many have nobly ascribed all recognized success and all avoidance of evil to the tenderness and devotion of mother.  Through helpless infancy her heart was our strong support and safe protection.  Through the ills of the day and the maladies of the night her gentle hand soothed as none other could. But after, all this was mother’s way.”      ~ Leroy Brownlow

“If you can induce a community to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptures, to question the reality and obligation of religion, to hesitate on deciding whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice, whether there be any eternal state of retribution beyond the grave, or whether there be any such thing as God, then yo have broken down the barriers of moral virtue and hoisted the flood gates of immorality and crime.”        ~ McGuffey Primary Reader 1854

Eileen Light