Parental responsibility does not end on a child's eighteenth birthday, and the behavior of young adults grows out of what parents supported or allowed in earlier years. A model who poses in revealing lingerie with her parents' full approval, and a drunk, drug-using teenager whose mother did nothing visible to restrain him, both show the result of permissiveness or absenteeism. Parents who do not guide their children essentially let them grow up on their own, and Scripture says plainly, "A child left to himself brings shame to his mother" (Proverbs 29:15). Today's culture glorifies youth, but being young, good-looking, talented, strong, and fun does not make a person wise. Parents must therefore be the moral, ethical, commonsense voice that directs the energies and aspirations of the young. Yet parents now seem afraid to correct their children, for reasons that are all silly in the end. Solomon commands, "Chasten your son while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction" (Proverbs 19:18). Parents who fail to discipline, correct, and advise their children doom them to lifetimes of grief and ruin, and that outcome is incentive enough for parents to make a difference.

Childrearing carries a profound responsibility, as it shapes the trajectory of a child's life. If bad habits, inclinations, and approaches to life are not corrected early, they become deeply ingrained, making change nearly impossible. The burden of overcoming these ingrained patterns is immense, and it is a gift to dedicate oneself to ensuring that children do not repeat the same mistakes as their parents. The apple often falls close to the tree, meaning children are likely to mirror their parents' errors unless deliberate efforts are made to alter their path through proper training and guidance. Punishment plays a critical role in childrearing, as it helps change the trajectory of a child's life. Without swift consequences, the mind becomes set to do evil, and mere verbal reasoning or explanation often fails to redirect a child. Pain, such as spanking, is necessary as a tool of discipline to drive out foolishness, which binds a child's heart. Foolishness in children manifests as weakness of mind, impulsive actions, lack of foresight, and an inability to consider consequences. They act without prudence, form rash opinions, and are easily provoked, often bouncing from one idea to another without aim or counsel. Children are in bondage to this foolishness, unable to relate to long-term consequences due to their lack of experience and intellectual capacity. They cannot be reasoned out of folly; immediate pain through punishment helps them associate cause and effect, teaching them to consider the end result of their actions. Punishment must be immediate to match a child's short attention span, fair to reflect justice, painful enough to make an impact without causing harm, and consistent to avoid confusion. It serves as a boundary, providing security and guiding children within safe limits, much like a fence around a playground offers protection. Childrearing is not solely about punishment; it involves building character and personality through various tools, including verbal education, practice, rewards for good behavior, and tailored consequences as children mature. Rewards should be given generously for good behavior within the child's ability, reinforcing desired traits. Parents must not abdicate their role by allowing children to define good behavior, as this undermines authority and guidance. The younger a child is when training begins, the better, as early submission and guidance shape their path more effectively. Parents must study their children and situations to apply discernment in discipline, recognizing whether disobedience stems from forgetfulness or deeper attitudes like anger or pride, adjusting punishment accordingly. Consistency in rules and consequences prevents confusion, ensuring that an infraction remains an infraction regardless of time or place. Childrearing demands immense time, energy, thoughtfulness, and planning to guide children into the right path, avoiding laziness or preoccupation with personal matters. It is a major responsibility within marriage, vital to a child's future, requiring diligent effort to produce the right fruit, little by little, without quick fixes.

Childrearing carries an awesome responsibility to guide potential into greatness, setting a goal to strive for in our efforts. It involves understanding the chemistry of government through reward, punishment, and charisma, which is akin to a deep respect for higher authority. Building charisma requires a strong relationship with God, a positive attitude between mates, a loving attitude toward children, and, least importantly, the techniques used in the mechanics of rearing a child. Specific techniques include maintaining eye contact, physical touch, and focused attention to ensure children feel valued. God serves as the ultimate role model in childrearing, demonstrating intense focus on His people, never delegating this responsibility to others. His attention is fixed on His family, ensuring their growth and protection, as seen in His guidance of Israel through the wilderness with purpose and direction. He encircles, instructs, and bears up His children like an eagle tending its young, stirring them to leave the nest and supporting them until they can stand on their own. This illustrates that childrearing is a primary concern, not a secondary task to be passed off. The responsibility of childrearing is urgently necessary and obligatory, requiring dedication and commitment from the earliest stages of a child's life. Training must be systematic, repetitive, and diligent, akin to sharpening a knife, to instill lasting impressions. It involves narrowing a child's path early to keep them within safe boundaries, protecting them from wandering aimlessly. This training is a lifelong project, not a haphazard effort, demanding consistent thought and love to shape character. Parents must avoid breaking a child's spirit through excessive harshness or criticism, which can lead to exasperation, resentment, or loss of self-esteem. Discipline should balance firmness with tenderness, considering a child's feelings and youth. Recognizing that each child has unique abilities, parents must study and meditate on their differences, helping each to produce according to their capacity without expecting identical outcomes. Training children in righteousness is essential, using God's unchanging standards as the foundation for morality and stability. Parents should teach from historical lessons and personal experiences of God's work in their lives, instilling a way of life with no alternative but the right path. This includes memorizing key teachings, expounding on practical wisdom, and discussing life's challenges to provide vision and prevent aimlessness. Even brief daily sessions of teaching, combined with a good example, can have a profound impact. Teaching responsibility is vital, ensuring children complete tasks well within their age and capacity, without allowing half-finished efforts. Parents must set an example of diligence and avoid taking over tasks out of impatience, instead guiding children gently toward perfection. Drills and practice sessions can instill good habits, such as proper manners, personal cleanliness, and respect for routines, making work enjoyable through teamwork and creativity. Respect must also be taught, encompassing deference toward God, others, and things. This involves cultivating appreciation for what is given, honoring the elderly, and caring for possessions and living creatures. Observing how children treat their belongings reveals their character, and parents must guide them to avoid destructive or careless attitudes, fostering a sense of honor and consideration in all aspects of life. Character in a child is revealed by conduct, and it is the responsibility of parents to work toward shaping it with dedication and purpose.

Childrearing holds a profound significance in the eyes of God, as it shapes the foundation of society and the future of His people. The goal of raising children is not merely to have obedient or quiet offspring, but to produce godly seed, individuals who reflect the character and values that align with God's purpose. This responsibility is paramount, as poor childrearing practices can be the spawning ground for many societal ills, contributing to behaviors that disrupt harmony and stability. The process of rearing children requires learning to love them in a way that goes beyond natural affection. True love, in the biblical sense, is not inherent but must be cultivated, often through the guidance of experienced individuals and the presence of God's Spirit. Without this divine love, it is impossible to nurture children in the manner that God intends. Additionally, parents must have a clear vision of God's purpose for their children. Without the revelation of His plan, efforts in childrearing may lead to outcomes that do not align with His ultimate goal, resulting in a divergence from the path He has set. Children are a gift from God, entrusted to parents as a heritage for a specific purpose. They are not merely possessions but are consecrated to Him, set apart with access to His truth through the faith of their parents. This unique position offers them a significant advantage, protecting them from the destructive influences of the adversary and equipping them to face challenges with the knowledge of God's ways. Parents, as the primary teachers, bear the responsibility to develop and guard their children, enhancing their growth while shielding them from degeneration in all aspects of life. The model for childrearing is God Himself, the ultimate Parent, whose methods and attitudes should guide parental practices. Harsh or overly punitive approaches can lead to rebellion or diminished self-worth in children, whereas God's example shows patience and value for even the youngest among us. Parents must recognize the immense potential in their children, seeing them as future participants in God's Kingdom, and rear them accordingly with the aim of preparing them for both human and godly life. This preparation involves instilling the ability to make right decisions, internalize God's values, exercise self-control, exhibit patience, use power wisely, face trials bravely, and develop a strong sense of self-esteem and obedience, all of which are essential for their future roles.

Children reflect the love first shown to them by their parents, just as believers reflect the love God initiates toward them. This principle requires parents to demonstrate love consistently so that children feel loved and develop hope, perseverance, and a positive sense of self. The relationship with God forms the essential foundation, for only through His love poured out by the Holy Spirit can parents reflect genuine affection rather than self-centeredness. When parents remain connected to God, they avoid the debased patterns of a world that leaves Him out of its knowledge and instead create an environment marked by the right charisma for training children. Wives learn to devote themselves to their husbands and children as homemakers, becoming busy in the home with discretion, purity, kindness, and voluntary submission to their husbands so that the word of God is not discredited. Behavior is largely learned, and parents must therefore yield to God's direction rather than allow children to absorb the world's traditions. Deuteronomy 6 establishes the core pattern: parents love God with heart, soul, and might, then teach His words diligently by talking of them throughout daily activities, binding them as signs on the hand and frontlets between the eyes, and writing them on doorposts and gates. This instruction covers every sphere of life so that children observe consistent godly conduct in work, thought, and relationships. Practical expressions of love include sustained eye contact that communicates acceptance, frequent physical contact through hugs and touch, and focused attention that conveys a child's worth. God chastens for the profit of His children so that they may share His holiness; parents likewise rear for their children's benefit rather than their own glory. Without revelation and purposeful direction, children left to themselves bring shame, but consistent demonstration of love casts out fear and enables them to reflect that love toward others.

Childrearing stands as one of the most difficult and important responsibilities given to human beings, a truth demonstrated by Adam and Eve, who without television, peer pressure, or drugs still managed to rear Cain, a murderer. This shows that external influences cannot be blamed exclusively for children turning out badly; the responsibility lies with parents. In contrast to modern trends where parenting has become a matter of "choice" rather than duty, and where children are increasingly handed over to daycare centers, after-school programs, and paid strangers, the biblical mandate found in Malachi 2:16 makes clear that God desires godly seed from marriage, meaning childrearing must be a full-time, hands-on parental responsibility that cannot be delegated to others without those others impressing their own personality and standards upon the child. The ultimate purpose of childrearing is not merely to prepare children for citizenship in an earthly nation but to prepare them as citizens of the Kingdom of God, since our true citizenship, as Paul states in Philippians 3:20, is in heaven. Loving children means preparing them for life by governing them properly, a task requiring authoritative direction rather than permissive freedom, in line with Proverbs 22:6's command to "train up" a child, meaning to narrow and hedge them toward the straight path. Effective family government can be analyzed into three basic elements: the expectation of reward, the fear of disadvantage or punishment, and charisma, defined as qualities that evoke voluntary allegiance and loyalty. Each element, used alone or in combination, produces distinct results. Reward alone amounts to bribery, destroying a child's discernment and producing a spoiled, self-centered character, as Scripture warns that bribes destroy the heart and blind judgment. Charisma alone, when used to manipulate through attraction, becomes exploitative, as illustrated by the biblical portrait of the harlot who allures only to exploit. Fear alone, or rule by dictatorship, may produce short-term outward compliance but ultimately hardens children and breeds rebellion, as seen in Rehoboam's disastrous threat to increase Solomon's already heavy yoke. Combinations such as charisma with fear (monarchy), reward with fear (the American system), or charisma with reward (illustrated by David's indulgent yet magnetic parenting of his sons) each produce mixed results, sometimes stability, sometimes rebellion, but none alone is sufficient. The only workable chemistry combines all three elements, with charisma being the most crucial and enduring. This charisma, biblically termed "the fear of the Lord," is not terror of punishment but a deep respect flowing from the totality of a governing personality, especially love, God's defining trait. Since children respond to what a parent genuinely is, effective childrearing requires parents first to transform themselves, seeking to duplicate God's character, particularly love, as the foundation for raising children who become loyal citizens of His coming Kingdom.

Children are a blessing from God, and He has commanded parents to train them in the right way to live. That responsibility belongs to parents, not to society or the school system. God told Israel through Moses to keep the Passover every year and to explain its meaning whenever their children asked, so that each generation would know the whats, whens, and whys of worshipping Him. If parents fail to teach, proper worship is lost over generations, because if parents do not teach their children, someone else will, and children will be taught everything God isn't. Children's questions about the holidays kept and not kept are opportunities to teach the truth. Public education has drifted from reading, writing, arithmetic, and work skills toward moral and ethical indoctrination contrary to God's way, and some parents are willing to hand off their duty while society happily takes over. Proverbs 22:6 says to train up a child in the way he should go, and Ephesians 6:1-4 tells children to obey and honor their parents and fathers not to provoke their children but to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. God's emphasis is on teaching children to live spiritually, godly, and profitably, toward eternal life, which does not exclude academics but promotes a healthy balance. Children taught God's commandments will pursue proper education, contribute to society, and be armed with the truth to choose correctly when confronted with teaching contrary to God. Parents must keep training them.

God places the responsibility for rearing and spiritually teaching children on the parents, not on the church. Each converted parent answers directly to God, and the children answer to the parent; the ministry stands off to the side, with the task of equipping the saints (Ephesians 4:11-14), not of raising their children. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:19-21 command each Israelite to teach God's words diligently to his children at home, on the road, at bedtime, and on rising, which makes childrearing a full-time, twenty-four-hour duty that carries the blessing of long life. Abraham is the model, for God knew he would command his children and household to keep the way of the LORD (Genesis 18:17-19). The severe penalties in Exodus 21:15, 17 reflect that a parent stands in God's place, molding a child's carnal character as God molds His children. Programs like Y.O.U. and Y.E.S. inverted this order by shifting responsibility to the church, so parents handed off their duty, and the result was poor fruit and many young people lost. The church cannot compete with the home or with television. Occasional group activities for children, such as hiking or camping, are fine, but a permanent church institution for children tends to dominate and displace parents. The key to success is the parent's own relationship with the Father, from whom come the patience, persistence, and right attitudes the work requires.

Fathers are a necessary part of God's plan for the family, and even a poor father is better than none. A flawed father can grow into the role and learn and improve, and a child can later decide whether his example is worth following, but an absent father leaves a vacuum a mother can hardly fill. Children in father-absent homes are four times more likely to be poor and tend toward higher drug use, violence, lower grades, and suicide. Children raised with engaged fathers fare better. Fathers who parent authoritatively, meaning loving with clear boundaries and expectations, produce better emotional, academic, social, and behavioral outcomes. Their children show more sociability, confidence, and self-control. Children close to their fathers are twice as likely to enter college or find stable work and 80% less likely to spend time in jail. Fathers can bond with infants as deeply as mothers do when involved from the start. Discipline belongs to a father's task, as Proverbs 3:11-12 shows. Proverbs also shows fathers teaching their sons wisdom, commands, and right paths (Proverbs 4:1-5, 10-11, 20-22; 23:22). Solomon, though David was an imperfect father who may have spent too little time with his children and failed to discipline them, kept the good he learned from him and became the man and king he was because David was present. Children should take the good from their fathers and not dwell on faults. Mothers hold the family together and civilize society, while men must be godly fathers and husbands who take responsibility. Uncles, grandfathers, older brothers, and others can fill the gap where a father is absent.