What did you teach your children this week?

The title of this article may cause many of you to glance over this and think it doesn’t apply. Let me begin by saying that this article was written for parents with children. Your children may be infants, teenagers, or they may even have infants or teens of their own. To all parents, I pose the question, “What have you taught your children this week?” This past week, I taught my daughter, Grace, how to hold her breath in our swimming pool, taught her that the finger that wrote on the wall in Daniel 5 was the finger of God, and I taught her how to shop for a modest bathing suit. Likewise, my parents taught me things as well this week; I learned that taking Exit 78 on I-85 in SC is not necessarily the fastest way to get to cousin Pam’s house, and that in North Carolina, Medicare will only pay for my grandma to stay in the nursing home for 21 days after her recent hip surgery. The point: parents should never stop teaching their children.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives a charge to parents when it says,
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

As I read that passage, I do not find a timeline in it. It doesn’t read, “Teach these things diligently to your children until they become teenagers or until they get married and have kids of their own.” It says that these things shall be on your hearts, and you shall tell them to your children at various times throughout the day. The responsibility of teaching children falls on the parent, not the public school system, not your child’s day care teacher, not even the Children’s Pastor or Student Pastor at your church. (They can be great support and resources to help you in this journey, but it’s not their job) When the Lord gave the people of Israel the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the end wasn’t children; the end was the future of the nation of Israel. The Lord commanded the people of Israel to teach these things diligently to their children for the sake of passing the Gospel down to another generation.

Our children are growing up in a competing and confronted world. As parents. we had better know what our teachers are teaching our children at school, we had better know what is on their ipods, we had better know what they are watching on TV, etc. In fact, we need to teach them how to listen to music, watch TV, surf the internet and read books. They will learn it somewhere, and for the sake of the Gospel, it needs to be from us as parents. I feel that far too many parents are spending more time teaching their kids how to play baseball and soccer than they are discussing the truths of the Bible with their children. The furtherance of the Gospel depends on you teaching your children.

Let me challenge you this week to teach your children something about the Bible. For parents with younger children, it may be something as simple as teaching your child to memorize Ephesians 6:1: “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” For parents of teenagers, teach your children how to make wise choices and show them in the Bible how to make wise choices. For parents who have older children, take some time this week to share experiences of raising them and teaching them to make Godly decisions. Those real life examples will encourage and inspire your children who are parents.

A great book for all parents is “Parenting with Scripture” by Kara Durbin. It gives you applicable Bible verses for every situation you may face, from anger to obedience to forgiveness to trust. It has verses for all needs. I challenge you to make the most of every opportunity and use those opportunities to teach your children for the sake of the Gospel, so that it may go well with you, and that the Gospel will live long in the land.

Family Devotions at the Hand House

They say it takes 27 days to make a routine a habit. We are striving to have family worship for 27 straight days. Not that it will become a habit, but that it will be a staple in our family. It is very difficult with holidays, vacations, visiting Grandma and Grandpa and Sundays. But our goal is 27 straight days.

Here is how Family Worship goes at the Hand house. (not that this is the only way) We begin with singing. We usually let our 3 1/2 year old Grace chose a song to sing. Many times she will pick Amazing Grace. (she likes the fact that her name is in it) Then Shanna and I will chose one or two more songs. We always pick a hymn, such as Victory in Jesus or At the Cross. After we sing, Shanna reads a Bible story out of Grace's Children's Bible. It has questions at the end, and a picture. We will ask Grace the questions and point out people and objects on the page. Then I read from Daddy's Bible (ESV) I read the same passage that mommy just read out of the children's Bible. I think it is vital for Grace to know that the stories she hears and the pictures she sees in her Bible are real and from the Bible.

After I read, then we move on to our memory verses. Grace knows the following by heart:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your stength. And Love your neighbor as yourself."

"Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

"Be slow to anger"

"Be kind and compassionate to everyone."

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, He makes me lie down in green pastures."

And my favorite:
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfullness, gentleness and self-control."

She recites 2-3 verses and we work on a new one, or like we are now, adding to Psalms 23.

Next we have prayer time. We go around the room and ask what we are going to pray for. Then we pray as a family. Lots of times Grace prays for things that we cannot understand, but we know God does.

I have recently read Voddie Baucham's book Family Driven Faith. The chapter in there about Family Worship is worth the price of the book. One thing we learned is, as much as possible teach Grace to sit during family worship like she would sit in big church. This is good training for their attention spans as well as practice for big church. Also, we learned that it is ok to discipline during family worship. It sets an example that family worship is not a time to cut up, it is a time of worship.

I know this is hard with little ones, but it is good training for your children and will teach them the importance of families worshipping togather.