Teach [My words] to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:19
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when his is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
And fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
I am currently going through a First Principles study on passing on the faith to our children with my small group. While we all agree it is vitally important to be passing our faith down to our children, it is sometimes hard to develop a plan of action to see that it is actually happening in our day-to-day lives.
We all have to find an effective way to weave the Word of God into our everyday lives and allow it to naturally invade our interactions and conversations; but if you’re not quite there yet, you’re in good company. Here is something I have begun doing and it is making an impact on my child:
- We read one Proverb and one Psalm everyday together (we take turns reading out loud, since there are natural breaks for us to take turns).
Proverbs, because it is straight-up good advice and if I can get my kids to understand and embrace of the value of wisdom, knowledge and understanding (which comes by way of properly fearing the Lord) they will be life-long learners and seekers of truth and sound judgement.
Psalms, because it is necessary to instill in my children the power of PRAISE, and just learning to honestly cry out to the Lord regardless of our thoughts and feelings, to cast our cares upon Him, and to remember the truth about who God is in every season of life. - We discuss what we’ve read, ask questions, pick out key parts and share how they might influence or thoughts, feelings or actions.
- The imagery in Proverbs and Psalms is striking and often sparks us to dig into other areas of the word (For example, Proverbs 27:15 compares a nagging wife to a continual dripping on a rainy day, and that it is as hard to restrain the wind as it a contentious woman…we were able to cross-reference this with the household scriptures in Ephesians, Colossians and elsewhere to discuss a wife’s responsibilities to her husband and how she can be a blessing to him and not a burden). What started as a general observation in a Proverb led to me being able to instruct her in the ways of the Lord for her future.
The way I see it, if I can get my children to value the Lord’s wisdom, and to revere Him properly through understanding and praise, they’ve got a fighting chance to follow Him all the days of their lives.
What concrete things do you do in your own lives and families to train up your children?