"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 door frames of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:4-9
In the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", the main character talked about how she never was a girl scout because she had to go to Greek school. She was immersed in her Greek heritage. Maybe we should be a little more like the crazy dad and use every opportunity to teach and train in God's Word. It should be the most important thing to us as parents.
Kids start at a younger age in athletics, dance and music training. Parents start their three year old in it so by the time they are seven maybe they will be an all star or first string in high school. What if we choose to make their spiritual training important from the start so they will be prepared when they get in upper elementary and definitely prepared for the teen years. If God's truth has not been impressed on them, it will make those years difficult.
We have to choose from a young age to schedule time and provide the resources to train our child(ren). If you have not chosen it in the past, you must choose to start now. It cannot wait anymore. It is not an option. You have to choose to schedule time to be home together so you can train them. You have to choose to make this more important than homework and extra curricular activities. You have to choose to show you care about the most important part of your child's future, their relationship with Christ.
Think a minute about your own childhood. Did you have any spiritual training? Was your training being dropped off at the church? Did you have to get yourself to church? Did you even know your parents cared about your spiritual training? Was dinner time the only time you prayed as a family? Do you wish someone would have made your relationship with Christ the most important thing? Do you wish it would have been impressed on you from a very young age?
You can choose to start a cycle of being a Deuteronomy 6 parent. You can choose to make your child's walk with Christ the most important thing in their life. But you have to choose to make it a priority with your time (schedule), money and energy.
1. Choose to schedule a daily time of praying and reading an age appropriate devotional.
Read it to them or as they get older let them read it and discuss it.
2. Choose to provide materiel for their training.
You can purchase books, go online or buy cd's.
www.biblegateway.com is perfect for a teen who lives on the computer. It is a bible online and even has a mobile phone version.
Preschool and early elementary: "My Very First Devotional Bible", "Sweet Dreams Princess", God's Little Princess Devotional Bible" (I think there is one for boys too.)
Older Elem: Bible Magazines have great reading plans and devotionals, "Mean Girls"
Teenagers: "7 Minutes With God" (there are more in the series), Every Young Man's (or young Woman's) Battle
Check to see if your church's curriculum had resources for parents to buy to supplement at home.
3.Choose to sit down at home to pray and talk about God.
We all want our child to be the next great athlete, musician or genius. But please want most of all for your child to have an active, growing relationship with Christ.
4. Choose to free up your schedule so you can train your child.
You may have to give up a TV show, only have one extra curricular activity for your child or yourself. You have to choose to schedule around school; why would their spiritual training be any less.
5. Choose to do the most important thing for your child.
You want to... now choose to.
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