There are a staggering amount of things to teach children. It’s really amazing as well as sometimes overwhelming. Our kids are 10 and 4, so what each of them needs to be taught differs dramatically. I think about teaching my kids American history, business, Spanish, sports, how to say “please’ and “thank you”, setting the table, doing chores, raking leaves, etc.
With everything we try to squeeze in, I frequently find it good to stop and make sure we’re teaching our kids what matters most, and that is the word of God and their relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s take a quick look at Deuteronomy chapter 6 to see how it instructs parents to teach this most important topic to their kids.
Verse 7 tells us to teach God’s word to our kids diligently. That means teaching the Bible to our kids should be a constant focus. In the same verse we’re told to talk of God’s word to our kids throughout the entire day.
Does that mean God wants us to stay at home from work and read the Bible to our kids all day? Of course not. However, it does mean that we ought to be able to show and explain God’s word to our kids in all our daily activities. See, God wants to be in everything we do. He doesn’t divide our lives into Sunday and all the other days, “spiritual” and “secular”. He sees each moment and activity as an opportunity to teach our kids about His ways.
As a reinforcement to these points we can look at verses 20-25. We see that God expects parents to be able to explain His ways to their kids when they ask questions.
If you’re a parent and don’t feel confident in explaining God’s word to your kids, don’t feel bad. There’s always time to learn. Just read part of God’s word little by little, and review it with your children. Maybe start with the gospel of Mark. Your kids don’t need you to be a theologian or a biblical rocket scientist. They just need you to bring a little direction to them from God’s word. If you commit to make that effort consistently, you can be sure God will honor it.
Thanks for reading.
Scott McClymonds
