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INTRODUCTION
--
T
here is an old proverb that says,
" Train up a child in the way he
should go, and even when he is
old, he will not depart trom it" (Prov.
22:6, Jewish Publication Society transla–
tion).
Yet many have believed they tollowed
that advice. only to discover when the
child became an adult that he (or she)
had departed from it completely. They
think that Solomon meant training as
not a " soul. " The breathing physical man
was the soul (Gen . 2:7). The spirit in him
did not impar! lite to him. His breathing
imparted the breath
ot
lite to his circula–
tory system. So says God.
Adam was made to need knowledge
that no animal can know. He was made
to need three kinds
ot
knowledge:
1)
knowledge
tor
contact and relationship
with God, 2) knowledge to have rela–
tionship with other people, and 3)
knowledge to deal with
things- matter.
What
Psychologists
Don'tKnow
About
Adam was created
with a human spirit by
which of himself he could
acquire knowledge. Man
has acquired by himselt
know ledge to bui ld
houses. make and oper–
ate automob il es, air–
planes, computers. He
has developed a sense of
good and evil , right and
wrong. Yet in nearly
6,000 years man has nev-
Child Rearing
er learned how to gel
along with fellowman.
Husband and wife
clash and divorce. Par–
ents can't understand
and properly train chil–
dren. Children too often
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
one would a dog , by teaching a child to
do
certain things, enforced by a system
of rewards for performance and punish–
ment for disobedience.
But what almos! no one understands
is the difference between a dog's brain
and a child's mind.
The human brain is accompanied by
a spirit in connection with it. This human
spirit enables a human to think-to rea–
son-to calculate-to make decisions.
Animals, by contras!, are equipped
with instinct.
Now understand the difference!
The child's mind can think and rea–
son. lt can acquire knowledge a dog or
an elephant cannot know. lt is stated in 1
Corinthians
2:11 ,
the Authorized Ver–
sien, " For what man knoweth the things
of a man. save [by] the spirit of man
which is in him?" A dog or an elephant
cannot know what a man knows.
Man's knowing , and power of self–
decision, is imparted to the brain by the
spirit that is in man.
Adam, the first created human, was
created with a spirit in him. The spirit was
resent parents. Family can'! live happily
with next-door neighbor. Management
and labor clash, races and ethnic groups
clash, nations war against one another.
And man has not learned-and
doesn't seem to want to know-how to
have a close association with his Maker.
Why? Because man was made with a
human spirit, unlike animals, but he was
made to need another Spirit-the Holy
Spirit of God.
The Creator treely offered his Spirit,
which also begets eterna! lite, to Adam.
The Holy Spirit would have imparted to
him knowledge for contact and relation–
ship with God-how to gel along with his
fellowman-how to treat his mate and
rear his children. But Adam rejected the
Spirit of God (tree of life) and took to
himself the knowledge of good and evil.
He decided to acquire and produce by
himself his own knowledge. But God had
not created in him the tools (his Holy Spir–
it) by which he could decide the right
knowledge. Without the addition of God's
Spirit, man with his own mind could only
produce selfish, self-centered knowl-
edge. Adam 's mind, as a result, was only
half complete. He was not mentally " all
there"!
But. even though limited to only the
human spirit, he still had a mind that
could think, reason, calculate, make
decisions. What an animal does is by
instinct. What a human does is by
thought-by reason-by decision!
Now see where this leads us. You train
a growing child as you would train a dog
or an elephant to do certain things a cer–
tain way. In sorne cases, because it has
become habit, he may not change it.
But he has a mind that can think, rea–
son, decide what to do and direct his
actions differently from parental teach–
ing- especially if an attitude of resis–
tance, hostility, resentment of authority
or prejudice- or if conformity to custom
of his peers-causes a change of mind.
In later lite because of disagreement he
may entirely depart from childhood train–
ing. Where, then, does this lead us?
In earliest childhood, Satan- the invis–
ible spirit ruler of this world- begins to
work on the child's mind. He broadcasts
not in words, sounds or pictures, but in
altitudes of selfishness, hostility, dis–
agreement, resentment and self-will.
Many parents neglect teaching their chil–
dren's minds. They wait until teachers at
schoolcanteachthem.
But Salan does not neglect your child's
mind! Salan begins broadcasting into it,
when only a few months old, altitudes of
selfishness and self-centeredness.
How, then, should you !rain up a child
in the way he should go? Not only by
habit todo certain things a certain way,
as you would !rain a dog, but by teaching
the child to think for himself or herselfl
Train a child to think and decide
according to the spirit and attitude of
God's law-love toward others, consid–
eration for the good and welfare of
others-and teach that Satan's way of
selfishness and jealousy, envy, antago–
nism toward others, is wrong. Teach a
child to honor his parents. Teach the
principie and attitude of God 's law of
love to God and love to other people.
The psychologists who reject the
revealed Word of God cannot rightly
teach you how to rear children. They do
not know what the human mind is. Unless
they have the Holy Spirit - and 1know of
no such psychologists- they are incom–
petent to teach authoritatively on child
rearing.