"Rotten Wood Cannot Be Carved"

The inspired Scriptures declare that children are a great blessing to any home (Psalm 127:3-5). Yet, there are many parents in our nation who have taken this blessing for granted, simply because they do not take the time to properly train and discipline their children.

What’s amazing to this writer, is that when children do something wrong, it somehow becomes easier to blame others for their failures. The bottom line is that children become what parents make of them.

The story is told of a financially successful man who once sent his teenage boy to an elite private eastern school. After spending six weeks at the school, the boy was sent home. The chancellor of the school wrote the father a letter saying they were sorry, but they could not help the boy, because of his undisciplined mindset.

The father sent back a blistering letter to the chancellor stating, “I sent you my son that you might make a gentleman of him.” In a few days, he received a reply. The chancellor included a quote from an old Chinese proverb which stated, “Rotten wood cannot be carved” (source - see #101).

Beloved, if we are to have disciplined children with character and morals, we must “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4 NIV; cf. Genesis 18:17-19 NIV).

General Douglas MacArthur prayed for such a disciplined son.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets

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