I. The Nature of a Child

• Proverbs does not uphold the idea that a child is innocent and without sin (20:11, 22:15).
• Proverbs teaches that the inclination of a human being is towards evil and self-destruction (22:15, 29:15).
• Therefore, parenting is a process of instruction and correction. Parents who believe that they are to allow children to follow their own inclinations are in fact denying what God says (22:6, 29:15).

II. The Meaning and Need For Instruction

• Parenting begins with personal instruction (Prov 1:8-9). “My son” occurs 23 times.
• The commandments are linked to a personal relationship (4:3-4, 7:1).
• This instruction is to call on the child to trust father or mother (23:26).
• The instruction is to include the command to respect and honour parents (19:26, 20:20, 30:11, 17).
• The instruction is a plea for the child to deliver himself from harm (23:19, 2:1-12).
• The instruction aims specifically for the child’s wisdom (10:1, 15:20, 23:24-25).
• The instruction seeks to teach obedience to God (28:7, 29:3).
• The heartbreak of parenting is not so much over financial loss or difficulty, but over foolishness (17:21, 25).
• Matured foolishness in one’s children is to the ruin of parents: emotional, financial, and otherwise (19:21).

III. The Meaning and Need for Correction

• The instruction is to be reinforced with rebuke, reproof and correction (29:15). The whole point of an authority relationship in the home is to not only supply instruction, but to insist upon its obedience, until such habits are formed in the child. Instruction without correction is merely good advice.
• The Bible recognises that loving parents do not enjoy correcting their children, but it is nonetheless necessary (23:13-14).
• This correction is not seeking to harm the child (19:18), and ironically, is a pain that will deliver from ultimate pain. The rod of correction is an acted-out symbol: disobedience brings pain. In many ways, physical correction is the least painful consequence of sin.
• There is a window period of time in which correcting can take place, after which the time is lost (19:18).
• Indeed, refusing to correct displays an inverted love (13:24). Correction is rooted in love (3:12).
• The disciplined child does not bring shame and unhappiness to the parents, but rest and delight (29:17).