"been petted and indulged until they are spoiled for practical life. The love of pleasure controls minds, and children are flattered and indulged to their ruin. Children should be trained and educated so that they may expect to meet with difficulties, as well as with temptations and dangers. They should be taught to have control over themselves, and to overcome difficulties nobly; and if they do not willfully rush into danger, and needlessly place themselves in the way of temptation; if they shun evil influences and vicious society, and then are unavoidably compelled to be in dangerous company, they will have strength of character to stand for the right and preserve principle, and will come forth in the strength of God with their morals untainted. The moral powers of youth who have been properly educated, if they make God their trust, will be equal to stand the most powerful test. CE 14.1"
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
EGW's passage elaborates on the principle of training children for life, including facing difficulties and temptations, which aligns directly with the proverb's emphasis on instilling lifelong values and habits.
"If parents would feel it a solemn duty that God enjoins upon them to educate their children for usefulness in this life, if they would adorn the inner temple of the souls of their sons and daughters for the immortal life, we should see a great change in society for the better. And then there would not be manifest so great indifference to practical godliness, and it would not be as difficult to arouse the moral sensibilities of children to understand the claims that God has upon them. But parents become more and more careless in the education of their children in the useful branches. Many parents allow their children to form wrong habits, and to follow their inclination rather than to impress upon their minds the danger of their doing this, and the necessity of their being controlled by principle. CE 14.2"
"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
The EGW passage echoes the sentiment of Ephesians 6:4, focusing on the responsibility of parents to educate and nurture their children in a way that fosters godliness and avoids provoking them negatively.