By JC Ryle
- If you are going to train children up properly, train them in the way they should go, not the way they would go.
- Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child – Proverbs 22:15; 29:15
- Self-will is probably the first thing that is developed in the heart of a child, and it must be resisted to teach what is Scriptural.
- Love is a grand secret to training.
- Fear causes hypocrisy, secrecy, and lies. Don’t make your children be afraid of you – Colossians 3:21.
- 9 out of 10 of the people we meet are what they are because of their upbringing.
- Don’t believe the lie that you can do nothing but hope for your children to turn out right.
- It is not true love to pamper and indulge your children by giving them what they want.
- Train your children to love the Bible. You cannot force them to love the Bible, but you can show and cause them to love it.
- Fill your children’s minds with the Scripture. Children absorb much more than you think.
- Teach your children to pray. Prayer is the peculiarity of God’s people. Prayer is the simplest means of men coming to God, and it is within reach of every man.
- Before a child learns to read or speak, he can learn to kneel down by his parents to pray.
- Train them to go to church. Tell them the importance of going to God’s house and listening to preaching. Tell them the importance of not forsaking to assemble.
- It is sad when there are no children in a church. Children are obliged to go to school whether they like it or not, so why cannot they be obliged to go to church?
- Take your children to church and have them sit with you. It is important to go to church, but make sure they learn to behave correctly in God’s house.
- Train them to a habit of obedience. If you love your children, teach them to make obedience their motto.
- It is not hard to understand why children disobey their Heavenly Father when they are not taught to obey their earthly father.
- Turn them to a habit of always speaking the truth. God is a God of truth, and the devil is the father of lies.
- Be careful of overindulging. It is a parent’s job to teach their children, not humor them. To profit them, not please them.
- Do not allow your children to become idols to you. Learn to say no to your children and not just go along with what they do or say.
- If you do not take care of trouble when your children are young, they will give you trouble when they are old — choose which you prefer.
- Don’t try to be wiser than God. Train your children as He trains His.
- To tell your children what is right while doing what is wrong is to take your children by the hand to Hell while pointing them to Heaven.
- Children learn more by sight then they do by ear.
- The parent who tries to train without being the right example, is building up with one hand and tearing down with the other.
- Train them up while praying and pleading to the Lord. He holds the child’s heart in His hands, and He holds the heart of your children.
- Home is the place where habits are formed.