If you would train your children rightly, then train them in the way they should go–Proverbs 22:6—and not in the way they would. Remember children are born with a decided bias or bent towards evil, and therefore if you let them choose for themselves, they are certain to choose wrong.
A mother cannot tell what her tender infant may grow up to be, – tall or short, weak or strong, wise or foolish: the child may be any of these things, or not, – it is all very uncertain. But one thing the mother can be certain of: her child will have a corrupt and sinful heart.
It is our nature to sin. “Foolishness,” says Solomon, “is bound in the heart of a child” Proverbs 22:15. “A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” Proverbs 29:15. Our hearts are like the earth on which we tread; leave it alone and it is sure to bear weeds.
