Ch. 3 – Your Child’s Development: Godward Orientation – Shepherding A Child’s Heart (A Synopsis)

In this installment of our synopsis of Tedd Tripp’s book “Shepherding A Child’s Heart,” we will look at Chapter 3 – “Your Child’s Development: Godward Orientation”

In the last chapter, the author laid out 6 shaping influences which impact our children, but he was quick to point out that it is not shaping influences alone which determine the types of people our kids will grow up to be.   Mr. Tripp explains that regardless of the shaping influences in a child’s life, it is his Godward orientation that determines how he will react to those influences.

Mr. Tripp points to Proverbs 9:7-10 for guidance.  Here is that verse from the English Standard Version:

7 Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
⁸ Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
⁹ Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Tripp makes the observation that, “It is the fear of the Lord that makes one wise and it is wisdom that determines how he responds to correction.”