Proverbs 22:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Godly influences can only be taught if the parents have been brought up in a manner that they can train the next generation in the way to go. This is generational influence. Parents and grandparents have the first opportunity to influence children. This is why we have been encouraged not to be unevenly yoked.
Do not believe that it is just that simple. The wisest man to rule over Israel fell away from instructions in righteousness and it caused that kingdom to be divided. King Solomon was unduly influenced because of the desires of the flesh.
1 Kings 11:3-4 English Standard Version
3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Wisdom alone will not keep us on the right path. Influences afflict the wise as it does the common man. This must be taught as a warning to the children that learning alone is insufficient to allow us to make right choices where wisdom fails us. We must examine those things that influence us.
We left off yesterday with this thought. “It is in the breaking of the influences that we can come to see our salvation is at hand.” It is the Lord who sets us free from the power of sin that enslaves us, then how does the Lord break those influences in our lives so that we might seek Him and follow Him?
Have we loved a particular food so much that we gorge ourselves to the point of being sick?
Sin is like that.