Train

Proverbs 22:6- "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

It was the end of July 1995. My wife and I, two kids-Morgan age 7 and Jordan age 4-pulled out of the driveway of our Pastor's home in Portland, Maine headed for Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend North Central University. This was the journey of all journeys as I finally followed through on God's call on my life to enter ministry full-time. I would receive my schooling and return to Maine. That was the plan.

To help on the trip was my Mom and Dad and my oldest brother. We had borrowed another brother's truck, an uncle's trailer, packed up everything we owned, had said our good-byes to our church family, blood family and friends and off we went. By August 2nd 1995 we were moved in to our apartment in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. By August 5th Mom and Dad were gone and our connection to Maine would be by telephone, the postal service and the fledgling internet.

The decision to make such a life altering move was not simple, nor easy. The full story takes more time than you are willing to read in a blog, but let me say that it could not have been done without Mom and Dad. And I am not just talking about the physical move, but the spiritual move.

Mom and Dad brought me up in church. They instilled in me the routine of faith until I could determine the depth of faith for myself. They were not just Sunday Christians as I witnessed them living out their faith in every way imaginable. They dealt with sickness, disappointment, prosperity, and poverty the same way: with God. I caught them praying for us kids at the house, saw Mom reading her Bible while having a cup of tea at the kitchen table. I marveled at the offering check they would put in the plate every week, even though some weeks the money was tight. I listened to them sing during worship, saw Dad usher and take the offering. Mom and Dad taught Sunday School, served on various boards, helped people in time of need. The lived their faith.

As I grew to have kids of my own I began to realize that the above verse is not just about the rote of Scripture, prayers and creeds. It was not just about the obligation of attending church services. Every time my Mom let me put the offering in the offering plate she was training me to be generous to God. Every time Mom and Dad went out of their way to pick someone else for church they were teaching me to serve others. Every time I caught them praying and reading the Bible they were re-enforcing the importance of such disciplines. All along, intentional or not, they were training me on the way I should go with God.

The choice to serve God, of course, has been mine. The choice to heed God's call to be a minister has been mine, as well. Yet I had role models in my parents that whatever I should choose to do, it is possible and always better to do it with God.

I cringe, as a Pastor, when someone tells me that they were so burned by the church when they were young that they would not force God or church on their kids. Instead, they will let their children make that decision on their own as they get older. I understand the sentiment and the abuses of the church in the past, but by not giving our kids a faith foundation or a model of what a healthy relationship with God and the church looks like, we are training them that life is lived without God. I am not sure that is anyone's intent.

Training anyone in anything takes modeling. If we do not model the life of faith to our kids, what are we modeling?

As I write this I am sitting in a Panera Bread in Green Bay, Wisconsin. My wife and I have just moved our daughter and our soon-to-be son-in-law from Minneapolis for them to begin their ministry as youth and worship pastors at Central Church. We borrowed someone's truck and someone's trailer, packed it up and made the trip to Packer land.

When they expressed thanks, I said to my daughter "Don't you remember when Gramma and Grampa and Uncle Kent helped us move out here? I am just doing what they did. And with pleasure."

I hope my daughter and son will be able to write the words I have written about my parents, some day. I hope they caught me praying, reading the Bible and serving others. I hope and pray that I have trained them as my parents trained me, not just with words but with actions.

The fact my daughter has entered the "family business" is not proof I have trained her well. How she lives her life and makes her decisions with God as her foundation is. I am doubly blessed, with parents that followed God's command to train me, and with children who took to that training I learned from Mom and Dad. Thank you, God.