Passing Faith to the Next Generation

There is a verse in Proverbs that has guided parents, teachers, and churches for generations. Proverbs 22:6 carries a simple but weighty promise: that a child trained in the right way will not ultimately abandon that foundation, even in old age. It is a verse that has been printed on classroom walls, quoted at baptisms, and whispered in prayers over sleeping children. But what does it actually mean to live it out? What does it look like in the daily, often messy, work of raising and teaching children in faith?

The answer begins with a single word from that verse: train.

More Than Teaching
The Hebrew word behind "train" in Proverbs 22:6 is striking. Elsewhere in scripture it is translated as "dedicate" -- used to describe the dedication of a house, a temple, even the golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected in the book of Daniel. Yet in this one verse, the word takes on the meaning of training, and it carries with it the idea of narrowing or restricting -- the deliberate shaping of a life toward what is right, good, and true.

This is not the same as simply teaching. Teaching transfers information. Training shapes a person. If someone wanted to become a singer, watching videos would not be enough. They would need voice lessons, repetition, correction, and practice. The same is true of faith formation. It requires intentional, sustained investment -- not just the occasional lesson, but a consistent shaping of a child's character, heart, and understanding toward godliness.

The command is also urgent. The word "child" in the original Hebrew spans a wide range of ages, from infancy to young adulthood. The message is clear: start early. Do not wait for children to be old enough to "understand." God's word is powerful and effective at every age, and the work of laying a spiritual foundation begins the moment a child enters your care.

Three Errors Worth Examining
Alongside the exhortation to train comes an honest look at some of the errors that can quietly undermine that effort.

The first is subtle but worth naming. When a child comes home from Sunday school, from a church camp, or from a Christian school, one of the most common questions adults ask is, "Did you have fun?" It seems harmless, even kind. But when fun becomes the primary measure of a successful spiritual experience, something important has been lost. Faith formation is not always entertaining. Sometimes it is hard work. Sometimes it is sitting with a difficult truth. The goal is not enjoyment -- it is growth.

The second error is the fallacy that parents do not really matter. Culture, peers, and social media can feel so overwhelming that parents begin to believe their influence is minimal. Research consistently tells a different story. The single most important factor in the development of a young person's faith is not their youth group or their friends. It is their parents. That is both sobering and deeply encouraging. Parents, your voice carries more weight than you may realize.

This connects to a third error: the drift toward frivolity. It is remarkably easy for a family's schedule to fill up with activities, commitments, and pursuits that carry no eternal weight. None of those things are necessarily wrong on their own, but when they consistently crowd out the things that matter most -- worship, scripture, prayer, Christian community -- something is being lost. A garden left untended does not stay empty. Weeds grow without any effort at all. Spiritual growth, on the other hand, requires intentional cultivation.

Finally, there is the matter of fathers specifically. Ephesians 6:4 places a particular responsibility on dads to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This is not a task to be delegated entirely to a spouse, a church, or a school. The biblical vision is clear: fathers are called to be active, engaged, and spiritually present in the lives of their children.

The Encouragement That Remains
Perhaps the most powerful part of Proverbs 22:6 is its closing promise -- that even when a child is old, they will not depart from the foundation that was laid. And while Proverbs speaks in the language of general wisdom rather than ironclad guarantees, the encouragement it offers is real and worth holding onto.

Consider what happens to an old, abandoned building. The walls may have crumbled. The roof may have caved in. But the foundation often remains. Foundations endure. They outlast the storms, the neglect, and even the deliberate attempts to walk away from them.

There is a story that illustrates this beautifully. A man who had come to faith as a teenager later walked away from everything he had been taught. He spent years justifying his choices, telling himself that since God had not answered a particular prayer, God must approve of the life he was living. He joined communities that affirmed his decisions. He silenced the truth he had once known.

But he described it this way: it was like holding a basketball underwater in a swimming pool. You can do it for a while. But eventually, you simply cannot hold it down anymore. The truth kept rising. The foundation he had been given as a young man would not stay buried. And eventually, he returned to it -- and spent the next four decades of his life helping others find their way back to truth as well.

That story is not just his story. It is the story of countless prodigals who knew the truth, walked away from it, and found that the foundation laid in their early years was still there when they finally stopped running.

The Work Before Us
To pass the faith, we must first live in the faith. We must train with love and with genuine passion, not lukewarm indifference. We must be willing to speak hard truths with gentleness and conviction. We must recognize the weight of our role and refuse to hand it off entirely to someone else.

The children in our lives -- our own, our students, the young people in our churches -- are watching. They will remember whether the faith we professed meant something to us. They will sense whether we believed what we taught.

Train up a child in the way he should go. The command has not changed. And neither has the promise.

In Christ's Love,

Pastor Kirk Flaa