These commandments that I give you today are to be upon 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. Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Think about it. Aren’t you more enthusiastic about something you feel you have a choice in, than about an idea someone tells you that you must accept? If we want to be faithful to impress Biblical wisdom on our children, we need to find a way to do that while respecting them as persons made in God’s image. The Bible talks about impressing the truths of scripture on our children.  The truth is that values are caught, not taught.

Children learn more from the lives of their parents than from Sunday school or anything that a parent tells them to believe. Do they see you spending time in scripture or in entertaining yourself?  Is it obvious that you go to the Bible in time of need, talk about it, memorize it?  Ask your children if they’d like to hear about something in scripture you’ve found intriguing or encouraging. Ask questions about the Bible aloud and invite your children to do the same. If you don’t have answers, explore together!

You don’t have to insist on mandatory prayer at mealtime and bedtime but take the opportunity to model genuine conversations with God at all times. Confess your own worries in prayer, give thanks for big and small things, ask for healing and blessing for your neighbors. Ask your child if they’d like to talk to God along with you, in their own natural words.

God, help us to live out the truth of scripture to our kids!

 

Resource reading:  Psalm 19:7-11