It is over 50 years since I embarked on the privilege of motherhood, so I am rather an antique in the way I regarded my responsibility as a mother. Looking back, I believe the underlying premise I felt was, “Train up a child ... “ (Prov. 22:66Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)). I am aware of various thoughts on the verse, but I believe this is the way the Lord directed me: they didn’t arrive already trained, so I had that responsibility to fulfill. Failures abounded, but so did His mercies in spite of them — the Lord had given me a charge, and I had to put my hand to the plow.
One difficulty that tested me over and over again was this: if I told one of mine to do something, it was to be done (without counting to three). To let it go was to encourage and teach disobedience — and it was contrary to training up a child in the way he should go.
When my children were toddlers, the command was often to “Come,” and I didn’t want an answer of “No” to be an option. I didn’t want to chase the little one until I could catch him, either, but wanted him to listen and obey promptly, as we should when we hear the Lord entreating us, “Come unto Me.”
There is so much today to attract and distract, not just the children, but the parents. When I voiced that to one of my daughters, her response was reassuring — “Mother, the Lord who kept us is the same Lord that will keep my boys as well.”