Proverbs 22:6
Proverbs describe patterns. They don’t sign contracts.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
What’s happening here
Proverbs is a collection of sayings about how the world generally works: the diligent usually prosper, the hot-tempered usually make trouble, careful parenting usually produces a steady adult. “Usually” is built into the genre. The same book says a gentle answer turns away wrath, which is true most of the time and not always. Verse 6 sits in a run of such observations. Read as a promise, it has broken the hearts of faithful parents whose children walked away. Read as a proverb, it is an encouragement that patient formation tends to hold, and a warning that neglect tends not to.
How it gets misread
Treated as a guarantee, which then becomes an accusation: if your adult child has left the faith, you must have trained them wrong. The verse makes no such claim.
How to use it
Encourage a parent with it, but say what it is. If you are talking with a parent grieving a child’s choices, this is not the verse to bring. Luke 15 is.
Read it with its neighbors
Context is the whole method. The search shows any verse with the ones around it.
Read Proverbs 22 in the search