Someone is watching you.

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

This is a tough verse. As a parent of four, I wonder if I trained our children as well as I could have. I know that at times I trained them the wrong way!

One thing we have to keep in mind is that "training" is not always what we think it is. We think training is some kind of formalized instruction but the truth is that with children, training is happening all the time. Children watch everything we do and they learn from it, good or bad.

I remember when my first child was around a year old, he could say a few words. I was very young myself and as I drove around with him in the car seat any opportunity for road rage I would yell at the other driver and often used a common four letter word. I was quite surprised one day when someone cut me off and as I evaded the car who almost hit me my son yelled out that four letter word.

Even Paul warned young Timothy that people would watch him and learn. So he urged him to "set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

This is great advice for us as well.

Remember, someone is watching you.