Proverbs 6:20-23
My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The church began at first in a family, and was preserved by the godly care of parents in instructing their children and household in the truths of God, whereby the knowledge of God was transmitted from generation to generation; and though the church is not confined to such strait limits, yet every private family is as a little nursery to the church. If the nursery be not carefully planted, the orchard will soon decay.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Parents are, by the constitution of things, in an important sense mediators between God and their children for a time. What you give them they receive; what you tell them they believe. This is their nature. You should weigh well what law, and what practice you impress first upon their tender hearts. First ideas and habits are to them most important. These give direction to their course, and tone to their character through life.
WILLIAM GURNALL: Consider it hath ever been the saints’ practice to instruct and teach their children the way of God. David we find dropping instruction into his son Solomon: And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind,” 1 Chronicles, 28:9. Though a king, he did not put it off to his chaplains, but whetted it on him with his own lips. Neither was his queen Bathsheba forgetful of her duty, her gracious counsel is upon record, Proverbs 31:1-31; and that she may do it with the more seriousness and solemnity, we find her stirring up her motherly bowels, to let her son see she fetched her words deep, even from her heart: “What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?” Proverbs 31:2. Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence. Parents know not what impression such melting expressions of their love mingled with their instructions, leave with their children.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Who can estimate the worth of a Christian mother?
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): What amazing affection does a mother feel toward her child which she cherishes in her bosom, suckles on her breast, and watches over with tender care, so that she passes sleepless nights, wears herself out by continued anxiety, and forgets herself!
WILLIAM ARNOT: A father’s commandment is the generic form, and is usually employed to signify parental authority; but here, in addition to the general formula, “the law of a mother” is specifically singled out.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The “law of thy mother” is mentioned to show that the same respect is to be had to a mother as to a father, the commandment and law of them being the same, and they standing in the same relation; which yet children are apt to make a difference in, and while they stand in awe of their father and his precepts, slight their mother and her directions, which ought not to be.
WILLIAM ARNOT: The first feature that arrests attention in this picture is, that effects are attributed to the law of a mother which only God’s law can produce. The inference is obvious and sure; it is assumed that the law which a mother instills is the Word of God dwelling richly in her own heart, and that she acts as a channel to convey that Word to the hearts of her children. The mother should be much with the children herself—so as to drink in what you contain; the only safety is that you be by grace led into Christ, so that what they get from you, shall be not what springs within you, but what flows into you from the Spring-head of holiness. To the children, it is the law of their mother, and therefore they receive it; but in substance it is the truth from Jesus, and to receive it is life. It is the law which converts the soul and makes wise the simple, poured through a mother’s lips into infants’ ears.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. During the first months of a child’s life, it learns more than we imagine. It soon learns the love of its mother and its own dependence—and, if the mother is wise, it learns the meaning of obedience and the necessity of yielding its will to a higher will. This may be the keynote of its whole future life. If it learns obedience and submission early, it may save a thousand tears from the child’s eyes and as many from the mother’s heart.
WILLIAM ARNOT: In the pliant time of childhood, character is molded chiefly by the mother. Many melting stories are told on earth, and I suppose many more in heaven, about the struggle carried on through youth and manhood, between present temptations and the memory of a mother’s law. Almighty grace delights to manifest itself in weakness; and oft the echo of a woman’s voice, rising up in the deep recesses of memory, has put a legion of devils to flight.
C. H. SPURGEON: From a very child Timothy had known the sacred writings, 2 Timothy 3:15. This expression is, no doubt, used to show that we cannot begin too early to imbue the minds of our children with Scriptural knowledge…The Holy Scripture may be learned by children as soon as they are capable of understanding anything. It is a very remarkable fact which I have heard asserted by many teachers, that children will learn to read out of the Bible better than from any other book—we make a mistake when we think that we must begin with something else and lead up to the Scriptures.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The grand point in dealing with children is to insist upon obedience. It is of great importance. If this be carried out from the very first, it will save a world of trouble to both parents and children…Parents are to beware of provoking their children to wrath by arbitrary conduct, by exhibiting partiality towards one more than another, and by needless crossing of the will of the child merely to make a display of parental authority. The child should ever see that the parent has his real interest at heart and that true love is the motive spring of every act. But we must insist on the obedience of children, even in this age of independence—an age specially marked by disobedience to parents and by gross disrespect.
WILLIAM ARNOT: There is in the spiritual department something corresponding to the birth, when the parent travails again until the child be born unto the Lord; and there is here also, something corresponding to the nursing. Great must be the delight of a mother, herself renewed, when she becomes the channel through which the “milk of the Word” flows into her child, 1 Peter 2:2; more especially when she feels the child desiring that milk, and with appetite drawing it for the sustenance of a new life. Oh, woman, if it cannot be said, great is thy faith, even although it should be small as a grain of mustard seed, yet great is thy opportunity!
