Love, Teach, Pray - Part 3

The second way in which we participate in the salvation of our children is to teach them. Loving our children opens the door of influence when we teach them. So what is it and how is it that we teach them? Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says,

⁴"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! ⁵"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷"You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up.”

As we just read, we are to teach them God’s commands diligently and constantly. But, our instruction doesn’t have to be rigid, heartless, heady or boring. We can make it understandable and even enjoyable for our children; adjusting the method (not content) as they grow and mature. Jean Fleming again writes, “These words suggest something more than a dry presentation of the appropriate material. Our teaching should be full of life and force, full-bodied and savory enough to whet our children’s appetites for God. God can help us do this as we try to impart truth to our children” (p.143). She also writes, “Our days are full of opportunities to share spiritual truth with our children. We can use everyday incidents as a springboard for this. We can explain how Jesus washed away our sins as we give them a bath, or talk about the parable of the good soil as we work in the garden, or tell them Jesus knows the number of hairs on their head as we comb their hair. Making or slicing bread can be the setting for telling them that Jesus is the bread of life, or that man doesn’t live by bread alone, or how Jesus fed five thousand people with two loaves of bread and five fishes” (pp. 36-37).

The opportunities to teach them are endless and our responsibility to do so is a command.