Invest in Our Children
Yael Eckstein | April 30, 2021
A wise son heeds his father’s instruction,
but a mocker does not respond to rebukes. — Proverbs 13:1
We continue with devotional thoughts from the Book of Proverbs every Friday. One of the 11 books in the Torah known as the Ketuvim, Hebrew for “writings,” Proverbs is part of the “wisdom tradition,” which also includes Job and Ecclesiastes.
I once commented to a friend of mine about how well she trained her three young boys to help around the house. Her response was that she wasn’t just raising sons, she was also raising husbands. While it made me laugh to think of her four-year-old as a husband-in-training, her answer also made me pause and reflect.
How would we treat children differently if we saw them not only as they are now, but as they could be one day? What if everyone saw children as future husbands and wives, parents of the next generation, and the leaders of tomorrow? Perhaps we would be more mindful of how we parent and what we teach our children. Maybe we would invest in our children with greater effort and care and spare nothing to make sure that every child in the world is well cared for.
Invest in Our Children
King Solomon taught, “A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not respond to rebukes.” The Jewish sages explained this verse to mean that it is because of the father’s instruction that a son turns out wise, while a child who grows up to be trouble was not given rebuke when he was a child. Children need direction and guidance, along with love and support, in order to thrive.
This teaching is based on the fact that the experiences we have in childhood create who we are as adults. Some amazing people are able to take a terrible childhood and become fantastic adults anyway, but for the most part, how children turn out is a direct result of how they are raised.
This truth inspires me to be the best parent that I can be and invest in my own four children. But it also encourages me to do all that I can to help every child receive what they need in order to become happy, healthy, and wise adults.
If we want to create a better world in the future, we need to start investing our time and effort with the children of today.