Teach the Children
In our last post we talked about Eli and how he was a great mentor for Samuel, but failed in the raising of his two sons. I want to continue along the lines of teaching our kids. In today’s world, our kids are slammed almost constantly with evil. Everywhere they turn, you have television, music, signs, and social media trying to take our kids down the wrong path. What do we, as parents, do? Turn to the Bible.
“Hear, o Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
The focus of this post is centered on the end of the referenced scripture. It talks about how often we are to teach our kids about the things of God. You can basically summarize verse seven as saying teach them all the time. Seems a little bit over the top doesn’t it? Maybe a little excessive. Is it really necessary? All the time?
Think about it like this. Pretend you have to wear a cast on your wrist. You wear this cast continuously for 6 weeks. At the end of 6 weeks, the cast is removed and you are told to move your wrist as much as you want. Will you be able to move your wrist freely? Nope. Your wrist will be very stiff. Your wrist will have become accustomed to the position that it was required to be in for 6 weeks. That position becomes the new normal for your wrist. When you try to move, it is going to resist against you. It is not going to move in a way that goes against its norm. Why is that? Your wrist was exposed continuously to the influence of the cast for six weeks. It gave in to what the cast wanted to accomplish. It yielded. This world and the things of it are like the cast. They are always there. Constant influence on our kids 24/7. If we don’t step in, as parents, and try to counteract the negative influence with the things of God, our children will be lost. Satan is relentless. We must also be relentless. In our previous blog post, I mentioned there are plenty of times we feel overwhelmed and want to relax. That is when Satan strikes. He will try to wear us down, and when we think it is safe to let our guard down, he pounces. Satan does not tire. The Bible describes Satan as a lion, seeking whoever he can devour (1 Peter 5:8). Notice the word, DEVOUR. The word devour means “to destroy spiritually, to ruin the soul”. That sums up Satan’s ultimate goal. To destroy the lives of the pinnacle of God’s creation for eternity.
We cannot sit idle and watch our children’s lives be destroyed because we are tired. That is a weak excuse. Our children are our heritage and deserve our very best every day. They deserve the best in teaching. They deserve God. If we don’t take the time to share with them the things of God as often as possible, Satan will be more than happy to fill in for us. He is always eager to babysit.