For the past couple of weeks in our Sunday School class, we had been talking about principles of parenting from the book of Proverbs and pulling a few points out of the book Wise Parenting Principles by Chris Cutshall. He has 40 principles, but we discussed only ten of them. One of those principles was 'Wise parents train their children to love one another.'
God established the family as the foundational community for teaching and training, as we know from Deuteronomy 4:6-7--And these words, which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
Learning to love and care about one another in the home is the training ground for all of the "one anothers" that we find in the Scriptures. But since we were working from the book of Proverbs, let me list just a few of the verses I found there that can help our children learn to love one another in our homes.
· We stand by one another when times get tough.
Proverbs 17:17—A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
·
We do good to one another.
Proverbs
3:27—Do not withhold
good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
·
We do not pick on each other or bicker with one another.
Proverbs 3:29-30—Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm.
Do not devise harm against your neighbor, while he lives insecurity beside you.
·
We do not tattle on one another just to cause trouble.
Proverbs 24:28—Do not be a witness against your neighbor without
cause, and do not deceive with your lips.· We are honorable and do not quarrel.
Proverbs 20:3—Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.
·
We do not tease or trick or deceive one another and call it joking.
Proverbs 26:18-19—Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, “I am only joking.”
Proverbs 26:18-19—Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, “I am only joking.”
· We are kind and truthful to one another.
Proverbs 3:3—Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck; Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Too often children grow up not liking or loving one another. Much is lost when that is true. A book I would recommend is Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by the Mally siblings. I posted about it here, if you'd like to read a little about it. The siblings, ages 22, 17, and 12 wrote how each of them viewed different situations and how they came to appreciate each other's perspectives.
The Proverbs are wonderful for teaching wisdom principles to our children. Another book I'd recommend is Proverbs for Parenting: A Topical Guide for Child Raising from the Book of Proverbs by Barbara Decker. She organizes many of the Proverbs into categories that can be used for memory work or referencing as we train our children and grandchildren. The book is currently out of print but can be found from used book dealers.
Painting ~ A Critical Moment, Harry Brooker 1848-1940
Wikimedia Commons public domain
