A Time To Fear: For Our Children

 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 forehead  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

 

Our families today are in trouble.  There are more children in our country from broken or one-parent homes than from intact families with a mother and a father.   

All too often all parents work and the children have to compete for their time and attention.  It is hard.  I know. I was a working mom when my two sons were children and I know how hard it is to get everything done and give each child the attention he/she needs.  I was always torn in trying to do a good job on all fronts.  I wanted us to be a perfect family and I wanted us to honor the Lord in all we did.  However, in times of stress I yelled. I hurried them from one activity to another without being patient. I often lost sight of the goal of trying to raise happy, obedient, God-loving children.  I was too tired to do all the things God wanted me to do. 

There is nothing wrong with music lessons, baseball teams, dance lessons, swimming practice, scouts, debate, choir, football, basketball, speech, tennis, and on and on and on!

However, do you take time to do the things in the verses above?  Teaching children about God is a full-time activity.  These verses show that the teaching is to be done as we go about all our daily activities wherever we are. 

First we have to get ourselves in a right relationship with God through study and prayer, and then teach what we learn to our children every minute of the day, from getting out of bed in the morning until going to bed at night!  It should permeate every minute of our time with them. 

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Pat Eppler