I was preparing a lesson for my Sunday School class recently. After teaching numerous times on Ephesians 5 and 6, the Lord saw fit to give me something new. I’ve covered the importance of wives submitting to husbands and of husbands submitting to the Lord. But it was only the last time I taught about children obeying their parents that God showed me something.

He showed me that in Ephesians 6:4, stirring up anger in your children is contrasted with bringing them up in training and instruction of the Lord. Previously when I read this verse, I saw “stirring up anger” and “bringing them up in training” as two SEPARATE points on a to-do list. Only when I saw that they were directly contrasted did I understand.

I saw that this is an either/or situation. EITHER bring up your children in training and instruction of the Lord, OR stir up anger in them. This world we live in belongs to the evil one, and trying to cope with this world by ourselves is impossible. If we don’t bring our children up to use God as their only compass, we are sowing in our children the inability to cope with this world, and are therefore stirring up anger in them for the future.