My new book, based on my sermon series by the same title, will be released hopefully in mid-March. Each week until then I want to introduce you to the message of this book. In this blog I will consider the basic premise of the book, that is, the Book of the Proverbs was written for the purpose of raising children to become men and women who know, love, and fear God. In the first nine chapters, specific core principles are outlined for kids to learn before they reach the age of thirteen; thus, the title of the book - Teaching Them Young: The Hidden Treasures of The Proverbs.

There are a variety of words in Hebrew that parallel their English equivalents. In English, we speak of infants, toddlers, pre-adolescents, teenagers, and adults. There are similar Hebrew words throughout the Book of Proverbs. Specifically, in the first nine chapters of Proverbs, Solomon, the author of most of the Proverbs, uses the word for the pre-teen. In Hebrew tradition, a child was expected to memorize scripture and certain core principles before he or she became a teenager. By the time he was eighteen, he was expected to learn a trade and be ready to enter adulthood.

So what are the core principles a pre-teen must learn? They are spelled out in the first nine chapters of Proverbs and are the focus of Teaching Them Young. Each chapter contains a key parenting principle rooted in one of the first nine chapters of Proverbs, a pointed story illustrating the principle, a scriptural analysis of the principle (there are loads of scriptures in this book), and practical teaching tools to help you apply the principle to your pre-teen. Over the next few weeks prior to publication I will take you on a little journey through these chapters. Have you visited the web site for this book - www.teachingthemyoung.com? There you can preorder your copy. It would make a great gift for young mothers and young dads on Mother's Day and Father's Day. Here are the titles of the chapters.

Teaching Them Young Chapter Titles

Introduction

1. The Fear of God and a Bucket Load of God-Esteem
   
2. Raising a Spiritual Dropout
   
3. The Myth of the Greener Grass
   
4. How the Mighty are Fallen
   
5. Is Your Child a Darth Vader?
   
6. Raising Kids who Stand Out in the Crowd
   
7. Your Child's Spiritual Birth Line
   
8. The Octagonal Gospel
   
9. Teach Your Children to Love the Church
   
10. Pearls, Pigs, Scorners and Mockers
    

Send me your parenting questions and I'll try to answer them in future posts.

In His Grip,
Pastor Betters