How We Are Brought Up

For years there has been a saying circulated around from a mainline denomination.  “Give us a child until they are five, and we will make them a Catholic for life.” I once read that by the time we are five, we learn the majority of what we are going to be. Notice not what we will know, but what we will be.  Outside of the grace of God, there is a lot of truth in this, so it seems. ”Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether is be right.”, Solomon wrote. (Proverbs 20:11) And Solomon, in Proverbs, reveals over and over how much can be learned by observation.  Here he points out the child is decidedly bent one way or another. It is noticeable that even believers have to often struggle with their early upbringing, both practically and doctrinally.  We all know that bad habits formed in youth are often life long struggles. And good habits are life long blessings. The little liar becomes big liar.  The laziness of youth often shows up in adulthood. The saving of money when young results in the same when older. 
The faithfulness to obligations when young result in the same when older. What is true practically is also true doctrinally.  That is what is true in our beliefs. We are all raised believing something. It may be humanistic or Biblical.  Which ever, we will believe some things. There is no vacuum in our minds. This leads me to this thought and observation.  How blessed and thankful ought the man or woman (or child) to be who was raised with the truth in their home! Timothy was reminded by Paul how from a child he had known the Scriptures which were able to make him wise unto salvation.  Brethren, the world tries to turn this on its head. It will rant and rave about not brainwashing children with religion.  It will talk about letting them decide. The whole time they are telling these lies, they will be knowingly or unknowingly being pumping into that little child’s mind and soul life long beliefs so by the time they are five or more, they will be set on that course of belief.  Don’t let the world nor devil fool you in this. All children are raised with beliefs. It is best, therefore, to be raised with the truth.  And if you are raised with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Bible, which is the truth, then praise the Lord for this.  How privileged our children are who are being raised this way! It will stay with them for life. It will cause a soft spot in their hearts if even they are unconverted. It will be what they come back to by God’s grace. It will be, hopefully, what they embrace and live by from the time they are a child into adulthood.  I am so thankful, more and more so as the years past, that from a child the Lord had me in a home that had the truth.  My Dad so many times quoted (and it is the verse I remember him quoting the most)
”You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32) He knew the truth and the truth set him free. And that truth was drummed into me from birth forward.  Is it not better to know what is right from the beginning?! Are we to think it is better to know a lie, then the truth?! I don’t think so. No, we know it is best to be brought up with the truth. May the Lord help us to see what an heritage we are giving our children.  Yes, in many ways, what a child believes by the time he is five will be what he becomes.  And no greater service to our children is done than to raise them, then, from the beginning with the truth.