Deut. 6:1 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, O 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 fathers, promised you.
Deut. 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 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 upon 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 can’t pass something onto our kids that we don’t have ourselves. After all, the above passage says that we need to love the lord our God with all OUR heart, OUR soul, and with all OUR strength…this is before he even mentions impressing it on your child. So what’s first? What should our priority be?
If we want to be great parents and see our children grow up to know, love, and serve Jesus, then we need to be doing that first.
Attending a weekend service, participating in a group, and meeting with others in your group on a casual basis are all designed to be reinforcements for the way we raise our children and draw closer to God…they aren’t intended to be replacements for us raising our kids up in the faith and us taking personal responsibility for our spiritual lives.
Grab a pencil.
Our spiritual lives are kind of like pencils we are holding. If we try to do it all by ourselves, our pencils are easily broken when hardships come our way, but when we come together as a community and gather our pencils (lives) together, what happens? It’s pretty much impossible to break the pencils.
So, one practical thing that we can do as parents is learn how to bless our children.
What kind of prayer of blessing can you do upon your kids daily?
- “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor 13:14 NIV)
- “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26 NIV)
- etch the scripture verse on your pencil and keep this pencil as a reminder.