What God Taught Me About Raising Children, Hope, and Reading Proverbs in Context

As a parent, this is another Scripture I misunderstood for many years.

I believed that if I trained my children in the ways of God, they would continue walking with Him for the rest of their lives. So when my oldest daughter drifted away from her faith, I found myself asking God, “Lord, I trained her up in the way she should go. How did we get here?”

When she was twelve years old, she lost her dad. Then, just a year or two later, COVID hit. Like so many young people, she found herself isolated from friends, confined to home, and trying to make sense of a world that had suddenly changed.

Somewhere along the way, she began to question her faith and drift away from the God she once knew.

This was the same little girl who boldly prayed at her pre-K graduation in front of a room full of people. The same little girl who loved hearing Bible stories and learning about God. The God she once prayed to so freely seemed so distant to her.

As a mother, that broke my heart.

For a long time, I wrestled with Proverbs 22:6 because I thought it was a promise. But as I began studying Scripture more deeply, I learned that the book of Proverbs is a collection of God-given wisdom. These verses are wise principles for living, not unconditional promises that guarantee a specific outcome in every situation.

That doesn’t mean the verse isn’t true. It means it isn’t a guarantee that every child raised in a godly home will never wander.

Understanding that truth lifted a burden I didn’t realize I had been carrying. It reminded me that my responsibility is to faithfully plant the seeds of God’s Word, model Christ, and pray. The outcome ultimately belongs to the Lord.

Have I lost hope?

Not for a moment.

I still believe the seeds planted in my daughter’s heart are there. I believe God’s Word never returns void, and I hold on to the promise found in Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV):

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

I trust that God is still pursuing her even when I cannot see Him working.

So I continue to pray. I continue to trust. And I continue to believe that one day she will find her way back to the God who has never stopped loving her.

If you’re a parent carrying the weight of a son or daughter who has wandered from the faith, I want to encourage you today: don’t give up.

Keep praying.

Keep trusting.

Keep believing.

The God who knows your child’s heart is still at work, and His love reaches farther than we ever could.

Sometimes we misunderstand a verse because we long for certainty. But even when a proverb isn’t an unconditional promise, it still points us to the wisdom and faithfulness of God.

And that’s where my hope remains.

Are you carrying the weight of a child who has wandered from the faith? If so, know that you are not alone. Keep planting seeds, keep praying, and keep trusting the God who loves your child even more than you do.