"Boy, did I ever read this verse wrong."

It's not I will train up my child in the way I would have him go and when he is old he will be just like me. Now before we all turn the children in our care loose to do as they please, let's think about this. We know it is not in God's will for us to abandon our children but do we consciously or unconsciously try to mold those children in our image? After all, God did say.

"Let US make man in OUR own image."

"Now we as well meaning all-knowing adults try to make our children in our image but what did God really say?"

Ge:1:26-27: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

That's where many of us have missed it, we try to make children copies of ourselves. God's image would be in the likeness of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Now let's take the verse apart. 

Train up a child in the way he should go - and when he is old - he will not depart from it.

We are to Teach or Guide a child in the way God has programmed him. God has a purpose for each of us. Each of us has a part in God's plan. God has designed us for a specific purpose and we will never be happy until we are doing what HE designed us for.

When we reach a point in our life we cease to be children and become men or women. Now as a man or woman our life will be based on the training we have had as a child. If our parents have trained us in the way God intended, our life will be a happy fulfilled one. If we are unprepared for the role God has designed for us, our life will be one of searching, of doubt and fear.

Robert A. Huddleston