We live in a crazy world! When I was a kid I overheard my parents saying that but it is hard for me to believe that it is even crazier now. We must remember God chose us to be alive at this time. He chose this time for our children and grandchildren to be born. He chose us to be here for such a time as this, not to be overcome but to overcome the world so others might walk and know the freedom we know.
It does take some practical steps on our part to make this happen. Growing further away from the Bible does not make you an overcomer it makes you a victim, being further from prayer causes you to feel abandoned, walking away from church makes you feel alone.
Many are worried about the outcome of elections but laws can change, elected officials will change but our children, grandchildren are where our greatest concern should be
We have to fight for the next generation until they can stand on their own with the tools and weapons we have placed in their hands.
Israel was surrounded by people who hated them, thought they were strange and did not believe at all like they believed. The people were violent, promiscuous, selfish, arrogant, and prideful. God instructed them how to protect their children from that environment.
My parents and church fed me the word. I knew the word, so when things that opposed God or the Word were brought up in class, the bus, or in general conversation, I knew where I stood, how to stand, and how to bring hope to others….this is how it happens
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
This is the instruction to parents regarding their children….God has entrusted every parent and grandparent with the responsibility to tell them about God.
With anything we are doing to bring about change…changing an attitude, changing a habit, or just simply wanting to mature in Christ, we must be intentional…so it is with our children. The world is being intentional in their indoctrination of misinformation and lies….so we must be intentional in the truth.
Tell a lie often enough and everyone will believe it to be true…Joseph Goebel, head of Nazi propaganda for Adolf Hitler
Two step process to fulfilling this command from the Lord so our children will be wise, healthy and strong
- Talk it
God begins His instruction challenging parents, before they can challenge their children
Deuteronomy 6:6
And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.
Before you can share it with your children, you must know it, understand it, teach it.
God’s word must be as the Psalm’s called it a lamp unto you feet (daily guidance, wisdom, and understanding) and a light unto your path…(insight and prophetic leading for you) it must be both of this for you daily
Parents, how is your relationship with the Lord. Are you confident, growing, deepening?
Do you know what you believe, why you believe it. Do you fully understand what Jesus did as He lived, died, and rose again. Do you understand the role of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Do you understand God’s grace for you and our broken world. Do you fully understand that you are the one he loves the most!
Can you explain to people by what right you are being allowed entrance in to heaven?
Does your faith impact your daily life and decisions?
When flying, the flight attendant will say, “in the event of an emergency, if you have small children and the oxygen mask drops, place the mask around your face first then attend to the child.”
If we don’t attend to ourselves first then our children may suffer because of our lack of care for ourselves.
Before you can truly share God’s love for our children, we must truly understand God’s love for us.
If you know it then you can easily talk about it to your children! Personally I grew as I shared my relationship with the Lord with my children, it challenged me to be aware of my faith, my attitude, and my understanding….I’d like to say I always succeeded but that would not be true because I am able to see both my successes and my failure in my children….But God is faithful that they are growing even deeper than me.
But we must talk it to our children, babies, teens, and even young adults and even as they age….God will always grant you growth in wisdom as you choose to allow growth to happen.
I believe that is why the Lord’s emphasis from verse 7
7a Repeat them again and again to your children.
Our children are hearing what the world has to offered repeated multiple times a day and repeated in grade after grade. How will they know the truth if you do not emphasize it to them over and over.
God emphasized this in Deuteronomy 4:9
But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.
How do we tell them?
Look for opportunities
- Share the stories on the drive to school, to the soccer game, dance class…how much time do you spend in the car with them
- Share the stories and the word before they go to bed at night
- Take opportunity when correction is needed to share the stories
- Repeat, repeat, repeat….barney song (then), hot dog song (now) kids love repetition
God loves them more than you do and if you lay out the stories, God will bring the fruit …there is coming a day when your children will not listen to you as well as they do now.
It is a command from God that we share the truth with our kids that they hear it from us and have it stirred in their hearts.
In Malaysia, if a Father is arrested for drunk driving he is not placed in jail alone, his wife is arrested as well. They see lawbreaking as a family affair.
It is that way with the Lord as well he sees the responsibility for teaching the children with both parents…both must understand their relationship with the Lord and be able to talk it to their children wherever they go.
- Next we need to walk it out
Talking about God with our children is one thing but walking it out with our children is just as important.
One of the challenges is as Dr. Armand Nicholi in writing the Harvard study, “The question of God” revealed that American parents spend less time with their children than almost any country.
We need to take every moment as valuable and make them work…God stressed
Deuteronomy 7b Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
God considers us the first evangelist to our children…every day, all along the way we are to share Jesus with our children….
When we are walking with them, driving with them
When they get up, when they go to bed
When we are Walmart, at the gas station, at soccer/football/baseball practice at dance, art classes where ever you are you have the opportunity to be Jesus to your kids that they see him in your reactions.
In Israel the Sabbath wasn’t the only day they were expected to act like the Lord it was everyday they were supposed to live a life that reflected the Lord.
Let me give you a little practical thing… there will come a day when your loving child will come to you and say, “I don’t want to go to church today!”….How will you respond? Give in, thinking they will think you are the cool parent?
What does it say to your kids that you allow them to choose their eternity, that you choose to skip church?
Here is my recommendation to respond….no yelling or even raising your voice, show them what is important…”in this family we believe in Jesus Christ, we are all going to church, it is something we do as a family…we will be leaving in 10 minutes!”
Make going to church, living out a life like Jesus to be as normal in your family as the rising and setting of the sun.
Being a Christian is not what we do, it is who we are….we show who we are by walking out our faith in front of our children every day
A young boy asked his Father, “Daddy, what’s a Christian?”
The daddy replied…
“A Christian is a person who loves and obeys God. He loves his friends, his neighbors, and even his enemies. He’s kind and gentle and prays a lot. He looks forward to going to heaven and thinks that knowing God is better than anything on earth. That, son is a Christian.
The boy then asked, “Daddy, have I ever seen a Christian?”
Our babies don’t need a definition of a Christian…they need an example of one.
Before we can talk to our kids about the Lord and walk it out before them…we have to have that real experience with Him always
Raising Kids who love God is not an accident it is something intentional that we must choose to do….God wants our children to know that He is the one that loves them the most.
The way they will know is by our talking it to them…drive to wherever, at night before they go to bed, as they are eating
They need us to walk it out for them, they need to see it in our actions with us, our actions toward them
What will be your plan to be intentional with walking and talking it out?
Our children are our future and our life. If our kids are successful at sports, dance, art yet they don’t know the Lord, what good is it. Sports are for a period, dance for a period, but Christ is for eternity.
We are doing everything in our power, as a church to help you. Giving you God’s word through facebook posts, teachings, counseling and mentoring….Children church Friday, Sunday, and Wednesdays. Your kids are in school 35-40 hours per week, the average family time at home minus being at sports, dance, sleep and such 26 hours per week.
We need to make the most of every moment we need to show them Jesus, teach them to pray, to understand the word to trust and love the Lord even more than we do!