“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

In the late 1880’s, Benjamin B. Warfield, a professor at Princeton University, traced the known descendents of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was the first president of Princeton and one of the key preachers in religious revival known as the “Great Awakening” during the eighteenth century. Warfield charted the 1,394 known descendents of Edwards. Of his known descendents there were 13 college presidents, 65 college professors, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 army and navy officers, 100 pastors, 60 authors of prominence, 3 United States senators, 80 public servants in other capacities including governors and ministers to foreign countries, and one vice-president of the United States.

Richard Dugdale, a sociologist and a contemporary of Warfield’s, traced the known descendents of Max Jukes. Jukes was a Dutch immigrant that arrived in New York in the early 1700’s. An alcoholic who couldn’t hold a job, of the 903 descendents of Jukes, 300 were delinquents, 145 confirmed drunkards, 90 were prostitutes, and over 100 spent an average of 13 years in prison including seven were convicted for murder. The Jukes’ family cost the taxpayers of New York over 1.2 million dollars. The descendents of Edwards never cost the government a single penny, instead making contributions of incalculable worth.

The best ministry parents can have is to train their children to know Jesus Christ. Are you helping your child to know the Lord better? Today in prayer, pray for you children and help them better know Jesus Christ.

“One child lost to the faith usually becomes a family lost to the faith, and not many generations later a whole community of unbelief is set in motion because of some earlier neglect of parental duties.” – Carl F. H. Henry

God’s Word: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2002, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN PROVERBS pkennedy@devotional.com