Teach Your Children

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. Psalm 78:4

One of the greatest joys of being a Mom-Mom is watching my daughter be the Mom. She has three times the patience that I did when she was the age of my granddaughter. I was not a Christian then so I have many regrets of missed opportunities from those years. As I watch her, which is easy because they live with us right now, I remember how taxing those days were.

I was just coming up the stairs behind her as she carried the 5-month-old in her arms and was listening to the three-year-old as she talked all the way up the stairs. I was headed to the peace of my office/bedroom and my daughter was on her way to the bathroom. She didn’t miss a step as she closed the door behind all three of them. All mothers remember when you couldn’t even go to the bathroom without your children in tow.

It is true that mothering is not for sissies. Nothing happens in our house right now that does not get publicly announced. This has offered some teachable moments but also some embarrassing ones for the adult whose actions are being announced! Three-year-olds still think the world revolves around them so if it’s funny to her she thinks everyone should laugh. If her baby brother is playing with something she wants, she should just take it!

It’s impressive to listen to either my son-in-law or my daughter address these things as they happen. Their desire is that their children learn and understand Biblical words. If they tell her to do something that she fails to do they say, “Are you obeying me?” (She knows she’s in trouble when she’s asked?!). When she is playing nicely with her brother (which is frequently the case) her parents tell her how pleased they are when she is kind to her brother. When she wants to climb on her brother they tell her to be gentle. When she needs to wait they tell her to be patient.

These are all everyday words in an adult world but to learn them as a child and to be taught that they are what God expects is a gift to a little child. I know that it stands out to me because though my children learned similar lessons they weren’t being taught that these things please God. I believe the Lord will hold us accountable for teaching these things to our children.

As I look and listen to many children in the world today I do not hear any respect for authority. Some teens seem angry all the time and unwilling to listen or follow direction. My family members and friends who teach talk about a big difference in kids today and twenty years ago. Today the parents don’t respect the authority of the teacher in the classroom any more than their children do. Should we really wonder why the children don’t respect authority if their parents don’t?

The Bible clearly tells us that teaching our children how to obey and please God is the responsibility of the parent. Deuteronomy 4:10b says, “the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so’.” Then again in chapter 6:7, “You shall teach them (speaking of the words God has commanded) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Many years ago I was a Juvenile Probation Officer. One of the things that was plain for me to see was that all respect for authority and the desire to live as parents teach is settled at a very young age. We can’t allow children total freedom and expect to reign them in in their early teens. It will be too late.

If children are going to learn to fear, follow, and love God my own children are living proof that they can come to know Him later in life. How much easier would it have been for them if I had taught them while they were young? I will never know. But, I do know that if we start from an early age teaching them what God expects, how God loves them, and the blessings that come from obedience they will have a huge head start.

I am absolutely thrilled to see my grandchildren getting that head start. God has taken what we did not do in our unbelief and worked in our children to teach them Himself and to provide role models where we failed. So, for the follower of Jesus Christ with children and grandchildren, even when they’re following you everywhere you go and talking non-stop- there’s a teachable moment coming. Are we prepared to teach of the Lord, or will we miss the next opportunity?