Caught or Taught

Some weeks I see my granddaughter several times and some weeks not at all, depending on our schedules. This week I have gotten lots of “Stella” time. This is partly because her uncle is home for the week and partly because I babysat one night.

What I have observed in my time with this little 17-month-old is how much she is already like her Mother! She enjoys taking a cell phone, placing it at her ear, and pretending to talk on it. As she does this she always starts with, “Hi” with the same intonation as her Mom. Then, also just like her Mom, she walks around the house jabbering away. It is too funny to watch her in this ritual of imitation. It reminds me of the many times I have heard a friend say, “there’s a lot more caught than taught.”

All of this makes me wonder about what my children “caught” from me. They’re old enough now that I can see some of it but they’re also away from me enough that I don’t get to see it all, the good or the bad. When I watch and listen to Stella with the cell phone I realize how important it is for us to obey God’s command to impress on our children what God has commanded us (Deuteronomy 6: 6 –7). He says we’re to talk about His commands when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up. These instructions should be coming from parents (and grandparents and Aunts and Uncles) for the next generation all the time.

Out of fear we see Christian parents neglecting this responsibility of passing on a heritage of Bible knowledge and godly living. The first is taught, the second caught. We fear pointing out sin afraid that children will have low self-esteem. We fear requiring godly living so they will be popular or embraced by the worldly systems they participate in. We fear saying, “You can’t go to soccer practice on Sunday morning” because they won’t get to start in the game.

Fear is not always wrong, but who or what are we afraid of? In Isaiah 51:7 God says, “Hear Me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts; Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.” But Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.”

Teach the fear of God so they won’t catch the fear of man.