“I too was once my father’s son, tenderly loved as my mother’s only child.” Proverbs 4:3 NLT

In order for your child to thrive physically and emotionally in later life, you must nurture them with love during their earliest and formative years. Indeed, health experts are now saying that it’s essential to their survival. One Christian leader wrote, “A study conducted at Harvard University shows unmistakably that the quality of the bonding between a boy and his mother is related to his physical health and well-being forty or fifty years later. Remarkably, 91 percent of college men who said they had not enjoyed a close relationship with their mothers developed coronary artery disease, hypertension, duodenal ulcers, or alcoholism by the midlife years. Only 45 percent of the men who recalled maternal warmth and closeness had similar illnesses. The same was true of men and relationships with their fathers. And consider this: 100 percent of the participants in this study whose mothers and fathers were cold and distant suffered numerous diagnosed diseases in midlife. In short, the quality of early relationships between boys and their parents is a powerful predictor of lifelong health. And you can be sure, the same is true of girls and women. It comes down to this: where early needs are not met, trouble looms down the road.” Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, said, “For I, too, was once my father’s son, tenderly loved as my mother’s only child.” David and Bathsheba were Solomon’s parents, and the story of what they did wrong is recorded for us all to read. But when it came to raising their son Solomon, they got it right. And by God’s grace you can too.

The Word for You Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from Celebration Enterprises, Inc. Copyright © 2024