I have two passions in life: one is for the Word of God, the second is teaching, specifically teaching children. The Bible has some very specific things to say about training children. If we want to have our faith in Jesus passed on with passion we have to teach our children to read the word of God. We have to be deliberate. Here is what the Lord says concerning teaching our children his word found in Deuteronomy 6:1-9 NIV (emphasis added).
1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
We are to teach our children to fear the Lord. This is not a dreadful fear but a deep reverence from knowing who God is and the power that he has with the power of his word. When we tell them about God, but never teach them to read his word for themselves we fail them.
We are to Impress them on our children: What are we as parents and families doing to impress the Word of God on our children? I want this to become part of this blog as we go along. How do we teach our children the Word of God. Taking them to church is not enough. For the most part our churches are failing our children, and we will talk more about that later. Deuteronomy 6 does not have an option clause or if you feel like it disclaimer. God uses strong language calling them commands, so we have to train our children in the word of God.
I believe that if we are going to honestly teach our children God’s commands, we have to teach them to read the Word of God. This does not mean simply telling them the stories that are in the Bible or taking them to children's church or Sunday school. We need to chapter by chapter read the Bible together and at minimum discuss what this means for us in our family and our lives as we live our faith in Christ. When our children are old enough to write it means journaling through scripture and then sharing the things that we are learning together. The Word of God has to become a part of every day of our lives as a family. We have to read it and talk about it on an ongoing basis.
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