The Worth of A Child Is Not Found In Convenience,
But In Determination.

Debra J.M. Smith, Copyright, 2006

Convenience is a key word today. Fast food is not enough for us; we need a drive through window and goodness help us if there’s a line. The same is a must for our banking. We have cup holders in our cars, cell phones with us at all times, snooze alarms, treadmills, dishwashers, computers, TVs in every room, and the list of connivances goes on and on.

We also can just let go of those things that are not convenient anymore, like, film cameras, last year’s computer, AOL (sorry had to get that in there). Fact is, if we don’t find it convenient anymore, we wipe it out of our lives.

What About The Children?

Where do the children come into play? For some, children only come into play if they are convenient as well. No, this is not an article about abortion. Though, I have written and will write again on abortion. This article is for those who don’t kill their young. This article is for true Christians, who are seeking answers in raising God loving children.

The Revelation

When I was pregnant for my oldest daughter, I can remember freaking out one day over if I would be a good parent. At that time something came to my mind, and that was that God was going to make all the difference for me as a mother. (It simply was not about me. It was and still is, about God.)

“Train up a child the way he should go, and when he is older he shall not depart,” would go through my head and flow off of my tongue throughout the raising of my daughters. This often upset other mothers—they did not want to think that if their children did not grow up right, that it could have been from their lacking.

There were no words to comfort those moms. Not for the lack of trying, mind you. I would tell them how God gives us all we need and that it is about having faith in God, not in ourselves. They just didn’t get it. And they didn’t get it for one reason, the want for convenience. They did not want to do anything that inconvenienced them. They thought that accepting the scripture at face value was going to mean more work for them. And yes, in some ways it is more work, but in the long run, it is far less.

An Ounce of Prevention
Is Worth A Ton of Cure

Raising a child needs the commitment of training the child up in accordance with God's will,
along with the determination to achieve just that.

It is true that there is more work involved in raising children, when they are younger, when one does it the way that God wants it done. I won’t say how, because we all have different circumstances. I will say that for me it meant staying home with my daughters and home schooling them as well. (I don’t need to go into all of the work that is involved in being a ‘stay at home mom’ or a home school mom—most can figure that out.)

What we do as parents, can differ from one another. Some things can differ between children in our own homes. The things that are universal are not what we do, but how and why. Why we do it is because God tells us to train them up, as they should go. How we do it, is with determination.

Determination

From the time we are born, we meet up with that which takes determination. It took determination to tie our shoes, get an “A” in math, learn a new dance, or even catch the eye of that special someone and even more determination to make it work with that ‘someone.’ Have you ever had to lose weight, firm up, stop smoking, quit drinking, etc? How about just getting up?

Every day we meet up with the need for that something down deep inside of us, to surface, so that we can do that which is not so easy to do. The same goes with training up children. Parents must be determined to do it right.

With determination comes seeking answers. With seeking answers comes hope. With hope comes direction. With direction comes a plan. With a plan comes a resolve. With a resolve comes continued determination. With continued determination comes seeing the fruits of your labor. With seeing the fruits of your labor comes joy. With joy comes continuance. With continuance comes a way of living. And finally, with a way of living comes tradition, which is passed down to the next generation.

And that is where one finds the worth of a child.