Parenting
Proverbs is all about wisdom, but how does God intend to pass that wisdom down to future generations? In these proverbs we look at how God uses diligent parents to pass down his wisdom to respectful children.
Resources:
Proverbs 10:5, 13:24, 15:5, 15:20, 19:18, 20:20, 22:6, 22:15, 23:22-23, 23:26, 29:15, 29:17
The Book of Proverbs (Chapters 1-15, NICOT), Bruce Waltke
Proverbs: Wisdom that Works, Ray Ortlund
St. John Chrysostom: Commentary on the Sages: Commentary on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, translated by Robert C. Hill
Proverbs, Charles Bridges
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Sermon Transcript
It’s a joy to have a lot of new parents around our church these days, and if you talk to any of them about the experience I’m guessing you’ll notice two themes: Joy, and difficulty. There have been some things published in recent years suggesting reasons parenting feels harder today than it did in past generations, not least of which is that parents today feel the pressure to do so much more than parents of past generations did. But as we continue our series through Proverbs and look at what it says about parenting, we will find something of a blessed simplicity to it in comparison to the many expectations that burden parents today, and here’s what we’ll see: God hands down his wisdom through diligent parents and respectful children.
We’ll start with diligent parents, then talk about respectful children. I understand that in the room today many of you are not parents, but the first part of the sermon on diligent parents is still for you for a few reasons: 1.) All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for all God’s people, including these verses on parenting. 2.) Some of you will one day become parents, and the more wisdom you can take into that, the better. 3.) Even if you will never be a parent, if you are a Christian you will probably always be in churches with parents and children in them, and you have a vital role to play in encouraging, and sometimes even correcting, those parents and children, but you have to know what God actually wants for them if you are to do that well.
Diligent Parents
The overarching reality in Proverbs that should direct the work of parents is summarized in Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” There’s this concept of a “way” again that is so prominent in Proverbs; another word for it would be “path”. Throughout Proverbs we’ve seen that there is a path of wisdom that leads to life—quality of life, length of life, and ultimately eternal life, and there is a path of folly that leads to death—misery in life, an untimely death, and ultimately, the second death, condemnation. There is no neutral path. Every one of us in this room today is on one of these paths already, and the decisions you make either further you on that path or move you away from it toward the alternate path.
That’s the reality of our lives in general, but what Proverbs 22:6 is showing us is that parents have a significant part to play in which path their children take. Train a child up in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. The idea there is that you as a parent choose which path you send your child down, and whatever path you send them down is the path they are most likely to take with their lives, even unto old age. Now, something good to know about the Proverbs: The proverbs are summaries of what is generally true, not promises. Every child is still a responsible moral agent before God, and sometimes children do grow up and regrettably choose to reject the path of wisdom, even after their parents trained them to take that path, and conversely, sometimes parents send their kids down a path of folly and by God’s grace he turns them to the path of wisdom. But don’t empty the hope out of this proverb with the exceptional cases. Proverbs 22:6 is as breathed out by God as any other verse of scripture, and it says that in general if you train a child up in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it. Parent out of faith, not out of fear. Parent with confidence that as you train up your child in the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it.
How, then, does Proverbs teach us to send our children down the path of wisdom? Three basic things: Example, instruction, and discipline. Proverbs 23:26 says, “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.” One of the best things you can do as a parent, perhaps even the most important thing you can do as a parent, to send your child down the path of wisdom is to walk that path in front of them yourself. You want to be able to say to your kids: “Let your eyes observe my ways” and that actually be a good thing. You aren’t perfect and you never will be, but you can walk the path of wisdom as an imperfect person: Confessing your sins rather than hiding them, receiving and resting on Christ for forgiveness, striving by the power of the Spirit to put sin to death and put on Christ. Devote personal time to prayer and Bible meditation, work diligently in whatever job God gives you, work hard to serve your spouse around the house, speak words that build up, encourage, and give grace to those who hear, sing God’s praises loudly, attend the gatherings of your church with vigorous consistency, show hospitality to others…just live a wise life with your kids, and let their eyes observe your ways. You train up a child in the way he should go by walking that way yourself.
And, you train up a child in the way he should go by instructing them on that path. So earlier in the same passage at which we’ve just been looking: “Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding” (Prov 23:22-23). The address here is once again to the son, but the implication is that the father is saying something to which the son should listen. The fact that there is a book of Proverbs, a book made up of words, testifies to the reality that wisdom is handed down not only through example, but through words. It’s generally wise to provide this instruction through both structured and unstructured channels. Many families find it helpful, for example, to have a regular time of family devotions at breakfast, after dinner, and/or at bedtime in which the Bible is read aloud and some discussion or teaching is given on it in ways that are suited to the developmental stage of the children. Steve was just recently telling me how he and his son meet 1-1 once per week and discuss Greg Gilbert’s What is the Gospel? Catechisms are another tool Christians have historically used to provide formal instruction to children; my family uses the New City Catechism. But then there are countless opportunities to provide informal, unplanned instruction. So let’s say you do read your Bible and pray in the morning and your child comes down and asks for breakfast. Over breakfast you can share with them what you were reading and explain why you set aside time to read your Bible and pray. When one of your children is excited to give someone a gift, you can talk about how Jesus himself told us it was more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). When one of your children is angry at someone else, you can talk about how Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of the people nailing him to the cross (Luke 23:34). Instruct your children with the wisdom of God’s Word.
How do you send your kids down the path of wisdom so that when they are old, they will not depart from it? Example, instruction, and finally, discipline. It is this aspect of parenting that Proverbs emphasizes the most. The ones I’ve just quoted on example and instruction are actually inferences I’m drawing from Proverbs directed to children, and they’re valid inferences, but in Proverbs 10-31 parenting is directly addressed in 9 verses by my count, and in 7 of them discipline is the focus. That tells us that discipline is at least a very important way in which you train up your child in the way he should go. And it also means that in this sermon on what Proverbs says about parenting, we’re going to focus on discipline.
We encounter it first in Proverbs 13:24 – “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” You’ll no doubt notice the mention of the rod in this verse and in many of the other proverbs on parenting, and Proverbs 23:13 makes it clear that this rod is a rod used to strike a child. To state it as clearly as possible, Proverbs teaches that it is wise for parents to strike their children with a rod, and foolish for them to not do so, to “spare” it as in Proverbs 13:24. We give you the print out of the proverbs each week so you can test whether such claims are so, and I’d encourage you with every sermon you hear to test what you hear by the words of scripture: “Oh I like that—but is he faithfully representing the text he’s referencing?” or “Oh I don’t like that—but is he faithfully representing the text he’s referencing?” I understand that the use of the rod may raise questions and perhaps even objections for some of you here today, especially if you are here and you are not yet a believer in Jesus. It sounds weird to modern ears–no doubt; so if it sounds weird to you, you aren’t alone. To many in our world today it doesn’t just sound weird; it sounds cruel and abusive.
A few brief comments in response to that concern: First, let me just say that far from commending abuse, the Bible condemns abuse. Psalm 11:5 says that God’s soul “hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Psalm 11:5). Psalm 7 tells us that if those who love violence will not repent, God will himself “whet his sword” and cause their violence to descend on their own skulls (Psalm 7:12-16). Child abuse can and has been perpetrated with a rod, or a belt, or a hand, when a parent inflicts injury on a child to vent their own anger. God hates that. God condemns that. God will punish those who do that if they will not repent. Today we’ve even grown in our awareness of how much parents can abuse their children without striking them, especially through the words they use. We’ll see when we talk about speech that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov 18:21); words can seriously damage a child. When parents use their words to inflict injury on their children to vent their anger, God hates that, condemns it, and will punish those who do it if they will not repent.
But does anyone really think that means parents should therefore never speak words of correction to their children? I mean maybe there are some parenting philosophies out there today that advocate that in theory, but in practice I think every parent realizes part of their job is to verbally correct their children in hope of pointing them down a better path. The fact that words can be used abusively doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be used at all. If that’s the case, though, why would we think that because the rod can be used abusively, it simply should not be used at all? I get why that’s an attractive option to protect against abuse; I really do, but there is a way to strike a child with a rod, what we commonly call spanking, that is not abusive. It’s when the rod is used not to vent anger, but to correct disobedience. It’s when the rod is used by a parent who is not angry, but is in control of their emotions. It’s when the use of the rod is accompanied by verbal reproof so that the child understands why they are getting a spank—“The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Prov 29:15). It’s when the rod is applied so as to inflict enough pain to serve as a deterrent, but never enough to cause welts, bruises, or other injuries to the child. And it’s when the use of the rod is followed by sincere forgiveness and loving embrace of the child.
So as we go through these proverbs that talk about the rod, have that use of the rod in your mind, not the abuses of it. And with that in mind, let’s look at why Proverbs commends the practice of parents disciplining their children with the rod. Returning to Proverbs 13:24, there we read that sparing the rod is actually hateful to a child, while the one who loves their child is diligent to discipline him. Why is sparing the rod hateful to a child? Well, the rod is only to be used to correct disobedience, i.e., you’ve given a command to a child that you know they both heard and understood, and they have not obeyed it. Think, then, about what disobedience is doing to a child: It is a decision that is furthering them in the path of folly that leads to death, and if you train them up in that path, when they are old, they will not depart from it. How much would you have to hate your child to watch them walk down that path and not stop them? One of the objections people sometimes raise to spanking is that it feels unloving, but this Proverb tells us that withholding it is actually unloving, while the one who is diligent to do it is the one who loves his child. Why? Because if you won’t do it because of how it makes you feel, you are prioritizing your feelings over the good of your child. That is not loving. And make no mistake about it: To use the rod in the way the Bible prescribes does not feel good in the moment for anyone involved. It’s much easier to ignore disobedience or fire off a word of correction from your chair, but to get up, take your child to a private space, work through their resistance, explain to them gently what’s about to happen, administer the discipline, deal with however they respond to that, and be restored takes diligence, but love for the child, a sincere desire to see them not depart from the path of wisdom when they are old, compels that kind of diligence.
Now maybe you’re thinking, “Ok Mike, I get it; I don’t want my kid going down the path of folly to death. I’m not going to stand by and just let them disobey, but why does that mean I have to use the rod? Why can’t verbal correction suffice?” Well, you can run that experiment and see how it goes, but remember that the blessing of God giving us his wisdom in the book of Proverbs is that we don’t have to run the experiment ourselves! The experiment’s been run by many humans before you and the divinely inspired conclusion is that words are insufficient to direct a child away from the path of folly to the path of wisdom. And Proverbs 22:15 tells us why: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.” I mentioned earlier that we’re all either on the path of wisdom to life or the path of folly to death—this verse is telling us that your children are actually born on the path of folly to death. In fact, not only are they born on that path, but the folly is bound up in their hearts. Since the first humans sinned, this has been true of every human who proceeded from their union. Mere words don’t take children off the path of folly because in their hearts, they like folly, just like you and I did when we were children, and just like sometimes we do still! But you know what children don’t like? Pain. So what the rod does is it teaches children where the path of disobedience ultimately leads: Pain. But it gives them comparatively little of it so that they still have an opportunity to turn to the path of wisdom before it’s too late.
So Proverbs 19:18 says, “Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death”. No sane parent wants to put their kids to death, but Proverbs realizes and acknowledges what many today are afraid to admit: No one can make you as angry as your children can. But Proverbs is saying there’s a better way! Instead of getting angry with your kids, discipline your kids, because there is still hope for them! They don’t have to keep doing whatever it is they’re doing that is the occasion for your anger! If you apply the rod of discipline, God can actually use that to drive the folly out of their hearts. When you have that kind of hope at your disposal, it can help not only drive the folly out of their hearts; it can help drive the anger out of yours! When you give your children a command and you know, “Ok; if they disobey, I will calmly administer the rod of discipline” you don’t have to yell and get angry. It’s when you’ve taken that option off the table but, no surprise, your kids are still disobeying, that you start feeling like you have to get angry and yell to seize control, and the words you say and the way you say them in those moments will do more damage to your child than a self-controlled spank ever will. Discipline your son, for there is hope.
We see that hope again in Proverbs 29:15: “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” The rod alone doesn’t give wisdom; it needs to be accompanied by verbal reproof. And reproof alone doesn’t give wisdom; it needs to be accompanied by the rod. But working together as God designed it, these do actually give wisdom! As instruments in God’s hands, God can and often does actually use these things to change the heart of your child and direct them to the path of wisdom that leads to life such that even when they are old, they will not depart from it.
But, a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Because folly is bound up in the heart of the child, one of the worst things you can do for a child is leave him or her to him or herself. This is why you must train them up in the way they should go. This is why the one who spares the rod hates his child, and what Proverbs 29:15 adds is that parents who leave their children to themselves actually hate themselves in the long run too! It feels better in the moment to leave children to themselves, but again, the wisdom of Proverbs is to acquaint us with the reality of where our actions are leading. A child left to himself brings shame to his mother in the long run. You left them to the path of folly that they were already on and that their heart loved, and what do you know? They got old and didn’t depart from it, only now instead of refusing to clean their room they refuse to get a job, instead of sitting out family devotions they’re separated from the church altogether, and instead of needing a new toy they’re a slave to money.
But, last Proverb we’ll look at in this section: “Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart” (Prov 29:17). Disciplining your child, especially in the very early years of their lives, will require a lot of diligence. It takes time, it takes effort, and sometimes it will leave you emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. But it’s all worth it. You can parent and discipline out of faith, not out of fear, because there is hope that in the end, if you discipline your son, he will give you rest, and give delight to your heart. I once talked to a pastor at another church that has many more people and families in it, who has seen many parents complete the process of training their children, and he said the mistake he sees a lot of parents make is that they go easy on their kids in their youngest years, because they’re cute, the problems don’t seem like a big deal, and it doesn’t feel good to discipline them, but then left to themselves they become teenagers who start acting out, and then the parents really try to clamp down on them. No parent in that situation should feel hopeless, but you’ve got a much steeper hill to climb at that point. The wiser approach he said he’s seen is when parents are diligent to discipline their children from a young age, and then as the rod and reproof bring wisdom, when the child gets to their teenage years, the parents can actually loosen up a bit, and send their kids out from the home at rest.
Maybe you’re already a parent and you’re realizing you haven’t done this well—welcome to the club. I guarantee you that every parent in this room, myself included, could tell you stories of times when we parented foolishly, and times when we’ve just felt like total failures as parents. Maybe you’re realizing that you’ve been shaped more by the wisdom of the world than the wisdom of God’s Word. Whatever the case may be, however old your children now are, there is hope for you and for your children. No matter how far down the path of folly you or they may be, there is an all-wise God in heaven who loves to display his glorious grace by rescuing fools from the path of folly and putting them on the path of wisdom. No proverbs are there to cause to despair of your past folly. All proverbs, these included, are there to point you down the path of wisdom going forward.
Maybe you have questions about how to practically administer the rod and reproof in a way that is conducive to handing down wisdom to your children. The proverbs don’t answer all those questions; it takes wisdom to apply them wisely. To that end let me commend to you the book Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Ted Tripp; there are no perfect books, but it’s the best one I’ve encountered that lays out a biblical framework for parenting and provides helpful practical wisdom on how to administer the rod and reproof. Let me also commend to you reading it with others who are committed to these biblical principles, and working out how to apply them together. Parents rightly want so badly to do a good job that sometimes conversations about it can be very sensitive, which can then lead us to avoid talking about it at all. I confess to my shame that I’ve not always engaged in those conversations in a way that’s been helpful to the people with whom I’ve had them. But if we just give up talking to one another about it, how will we grow in wisdom as parents? Who else will we talk to about it, if not our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ?
There are practical questions these proverbs don’t specifically answer, but before I move on to addressing children, let me just ask you: Do you trust the wisdom these proverbs do contain, or do you find yourself trying to explain them away? I trust that in your heart of hearts you want what is best for your children; in your heart of hearts, do you believe that the path of wisdom is best for your children? And in your heart of hearts, do you believe that the rod and reproof give wisdom? If so, I trust that through prayer, wise counsel, and diligent practice, God will give you the wisdom you need to sort out the specific application to your parenting.
God hands down his wisdom through diligent parents who live lives of wisdom, who instruct their children on wisdom, and who discipline their children when they stray from the path of wisdom. And God transmits his wisdom through respectful children who follow that example, and who receive that instruction and discipline. So let’s talk about respectful children.
Respectful Children
Now obviously in this section I want to speak to the kids in the room who are still living under their parents’ roof, but the cool thing about this section is that although not all of you in the room are or ever will be parents, all of you in the room were once someone’s child, and still are someone’s son or daughter. The command of scripture to honor your mother and father is not confined to a certain age. It is wise, then, for all of us, to honor our parents. How can you do that?
The proverbs that answer that question basically instruct children to receive the things their parents are instructed to do. “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways” (Prov 23:26). All of us in the room should observe the ways of our parents and insofar as our parents are walking in the wisdom revealed to us in scripture, we should follow their example. And especially the younger you are, the less you should trust your ability to critique your parents’ wisdom, and the more you should err on the side of following their example.
One way to do that that Proverbs especially mentions is in how you work. “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame” (Prov 10:5). If you watch your parents at your house closely, you should notice just how much of their day they spend working. I imagine for most of you kids, when you get up in the morning on a weekday at least, your parents got up before you. Did you know that’s not usually because they just like waking up early? It’s usually because they set an alarm and dragged themselves out of bed because they knew they’d have to get out of bed so they have time to pray, help you get fed and ready for school, and to then go do whatever job God has assigned them throughout the day. Do you know when you open your lunch at school or sit down for dinner that you parents had to work to earn the money to put that meal there and that probably one or both of your parents worked in the kitchen ahead of time to prepare it? So what can you do when you realize that? You can join them! Instead of simply consuming their work, contribute to your household. Set the table, put dishes away, vacuum the floor—ask your parents what you can do to help around the house. Through this, God hands down his wisdom to you, so that when you grow up, you know how to work diligently and contribute to a household, church, neighborhood, and/or company of your own.
Your parents are told to instruct and discipline you; receive their instruction and discipline. “Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old” (Prov 23:22). “A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent” (Prov 15:5). Whether child or adult, if your parents are speaking to you, that’s one of the voices on earth that should carry the most weight in your mind. You should drop whatever you are doing and listen attentively, as God intends to use them to hand down his wisdom to you. Sometimes I imagine you enjoy doing that, but because folly is bound up in our hearts from birth, there will be other times your heart resists the instruction you are hearing. There will be times it seems to get in the way of what you want. And almost always you will not be excited to receive the discipline of the rod when you have disobeyed. But the thing to realize about all of these is that while they may be painful in the moment, they are genuinely for your good. There really is a way that seems right to you that ends in death, and your parents don’t want you to continue in it! Let the rod and reproof redirect you to the path of wisdom, rather than fighting against them further.
If instead you choose to fight your parents, God has a pretty stern warning for you. “If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness” (Prov 20:20). That image of a lamp being put out in darkness is an image of final judgment. The idea is that God will give you a consequence from which there is no return: It is utter darkness. My fellow grown-ups in the room, consider this for how you speak to and about your parents. Some of you lamentably had abusive parents; you shouldn’t lie about that, cover it up, or minimize it. You probably will need to establish some boundaries in the relationship so as not to enable their sinful patterns. But can you think of honest ways to bless them rather than curse? Can you forgive them as God in Christ has forgiven you? Many more of us in the room simply grew up with imperfect parents; they’re the only ones out there! And it’s easy in hindsight to spot their imperfections, dwell on them, and even talk about them with others, but do you realize what an incredibly difficult job it is to parent a child? We should not minimize real abuses, but we should also be aware of the danger of magnifying people’s imperfections. May we remove the log from our own eyes before judging the speck in our parents’, and may we instead honor them for the many ways they really did a great job parenting us. However old you are, seek to make your parents glad by the way you now live: “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother” (Prov 15:20).
If you live wisely in God’s sight and your parents don’t like it, that’s on them. But how often have we lived foolishly and so brought grief to our parents? Folly is indeed bound up in the heart of the child, but can’t you still see it in your heart today, however old you are? Though the rod of discipline can drive folly out of the heart, neither the rod alone, nor the mere passage of time into adulthood, can change our hearts. We all have acted foolishly because in our heart of hearts, we have loved folly, whether as children or as parents, and the path that has put us on is the path to death. God would be totally just to put our lamp out in utter darkness, but there is hope even for us, because the true God is not only a righteous judge—He is a loving father. He is an eternal father, who is eternally begetting his Son, and for our salvation, he gave his only Son to bear the rod of judgment we deserved for our folly. Jesus Christ is the only perfectly obedient son. Born of a virgin, he was the only human since Adam and Eve in whose heart there was no folly. He walked the path of wisdom without the slightest turning aside, and yet on the cross, what happened? The lights went out. The sky went dark as God’s judgment fell on him; why? “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5). That word translated chastisement there; you know what it is? It’s the same word translated discipline in the proverbs we’ve been looking at today. The discipline our sins deserved was not a rod that inflicts only temporary pain for the sake of our restoration—the discipline our sins deserved was the rod of eternal condemnation, but on the cross, that condemnation fell on Christ, and that chastisement has now brought peace to whoever will turn from their sins and believe in him.
Turn from your sins, believe in Christ, and you will find God to be not only a righteous judge, but a loving Father. As your loving Father, he will still discipline you; how could he not? He loves you more than you even love your own children. He will discipline you, but he will never condemn you. All the condemnation God’s children deserved was already borne by Christ, and now risen from the dead, he sends his Spirit to give us new hearts, so that to you who believe in Christ, in your heart of hearts, you do actually love wisdom now. Parents, it’s that heart change that your children need more than anything else. Sometimes I’ve heard people object to the use of the rod because they worry it will only produce external obedience in their kids—they’ll just obey because they’re trying to avoid the rod, but I want them to obey out of love for God, the thinking goes. But if you’re looking for a parenting technique that produces that kind of obedience, you’re looking in the wrong aisle of the grocery store. No parenting technique can change your child’s heart; only God can do that, and there is no technique to force him into doing so.
But the means God has given us through which he ordinarily works when he does choose to do so include your example, your instruction, and your discipline. Jesus is the path of wisdom—set an example for your kids by walking in close friendship with him. Instruct your kids on what is right and wrong, but instruct them even more on the glories of Christ and call them to receive and rest upon him alone for salvation. And yes, even the rod can point your kids to Christ. Another older pastor put it to me like this recently: The immediate purpose of the rod is to restrain the behavior of the child, the mediate purpose is to teach the child that they are under authority, not in authority, but the ultimate purpose is to convict the child of sin and thus show them their need for a savior. Don’t leave your kids to themselves. Be diligent to discipline them in hope that they will not merely become more manageable children, but in hope of pointing them both to their need for Christ, and to the power and ability of Christ to save them from their folly, and be diligent in prayer for God to do the heart-changing work in your children that only he can do. That’s how God will hand down his wisdom to them.
And kids, honor your parents out of honor for Christ. However young you are, you are not too young to turn from your sins and receive and rest upon Jesus alone for salvation. Your parents cannot do that for you. God has no grandchildren, but you can become his child through faith alone. If your parents lead you away from Christ, follow Christ instead—he will always be the path of wisdom that leads to life. But insofar as your parents follow Christ, follow them. And to you in the room who will never marry or have children, you’re in good company: Neither Jesus nor many of his apostles did either. Though you should never attempt to use the rod, by your example and instruction you have the opportunity to potentially have even more children than those who have to devote so much of their time to the ones to whom they’ve given birth. Through your proclamation of the gospel God may grant people a new birth, and through your example and instruction God can use you to bring them to maturity in Christ. Through you God can hand down his wisdom, even as God also hands down his wisdom through diligent parents and respectful children.