Training Up Our Children | Morning Routine Daily Devotional for January 26

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. — Proverbs 27:6 ESV

I’m coming to you today from the final day of the Herzog Foundation Marketing Bootcamp at the Chick-Fil-A Impact 360 facility in Atlanta, GA. It has been my pleasure to be among Christian School marketing staff as we’ve been working together to prayerfully devise a plan to increase their school’s enrollment. The last week of January is National School Choice Week, and we at the Herzog Foundation are committed to advancing K-12 Christian education—whether in the school or in the home. And we certainly desire that every Christian parent makes the choice to train up their child in the way he should go! 

In today’s familiar proverb, we’re told that as parents, we have been given amazing authority to shape the hearts and minds of our children. Now this proverb is not a guarantee that our kids will always walk in our instruction, anymore that we completely walked in the instruction of our parents. But it is a promise that we program them to know right from wrong… almost like the parents are setting the dip switches in the minds and hearts of children. We set them up for understanding right from wrong and in introducing them to the God of our faith. Now, if they choose to walk in another path, they can never do it with peace, because we taught them differently. We trained them as children in the way they should go and, even when they are old, they may not walk in it—but they can never depart from the truth that you established in them. It’s the power of parenting, and the role God gives all parents to exercise.

Here at the Herzog Foundation, we exist to catalyze and accelerate the development of quality Christ-centered K-12 education so that families and culture flourish. We believe, just as our founder Stanley Herzog believed, that setting our children on this path costs more than a few hours a week in a church building; training our children in the faith is a full-time job. May God bless you, as you show up for work!