Pass It On

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Since Friday, my family and I have been on vacation. We spent some time with my wife's side of the family and now we are spending time with my side.

It has been nice to get away from the normal day to day events. It's fun to see the boys spending time with their grandparents (even when they act out a little more because Grandma or Grandpa will come to their rescue).

I've really enjoyed spending this extra time with my children as well. Most days I see them before work, maybe at lunch time, and then for a couple hours at the end of the day. It makes me really want to raise them right.

In Deuteronomy 6 we are told:


Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

I'm a Youth Minister, so I do a lot of thinking about other kids' walk with Christ. I work hard to make sure I'm teaching correctly every week. I put a whole lot of effort into it.

That's good. I need to do it that way. But I also need to be putting effort into the lives of my own children. What good is it if I win other kids to Christ but I lose my own? They are so important to me and they are important to our God.

He desires that we raise our children to know Him. If we drop the ball and don't pass on the Word of God to our children, we will raise a generation even further from Him than the one we have now (This is what kept happening in Israel).

It's also important for us to not pass off the teaching. We drop our kids off at school so someone else can teach them. We take our kids to practices so others can teach them how to play a game right. All too often we drop our kids off at youth group expecting the paid staff or volunteers to give them all the spiritual teaching they need.

But God commands parents to teach their own children (I'm just a helper). Let's not forget our responsibility as parents to teach our children the way of God and "Train up a child in the way he should go" (Proverbs 22:6a).