Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024
Deuteronomy 11:18-19:
18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
The verses before this passage discuss what good will come if the Israelites obey God’s commands and also the Lord’s wrath that will come if they serve other gods. God is also reminding the older generation of Israelites that their children did not see all the miracles that God performed in bringing them out of Egypt or during their 40 years wandering in the wilderness. In verse 19 God is explicitly telling the Israelites that they must tell their children all of these things.
Even though we are thousands of years from this scripture it still is true for us today. If we don’t teach our children about the truths of God’s Word, the evil forces that try to mislead us and the personal miracles and testimonies that He has performed in our lives, the clean slates in their minds will look to be painted by someone else. Satan will have no problem helping with that. And he will use whatever willing resources he can to get it done. It may be family members, the school system, television shows/commercials, their friends, etc.
God has given our children to us because He specifically wants us to raise them. There are giftings and experiences that we have that when displayed or taught to our children appropriately will help them in fulfilling their own destiny. We cannot leave it up to our churches and schools to raise our children.
Whenever we play a game for the first time our kids know that we have to read the instructions so we play it correctly and get the most out of our game time. It’s never too early to get our children to revere and respect God and His Word (a.k.a. our Life Instruction Manual). We don’t want them to see Him as a strict dictator that sits up in heaven with lightning bolts in His hand. If we expect them to respect and obey us, shouldn’t we also expect them to respect and obey God? Just as we want them to know our love and deep devotion to them shouldn’t we want them to know of God’s even deeper love and devotion?
Final Thoughts…
It’s not only important to share God’s Word, God also wants us to share our experiences (good and bad) with our children at the appropriate times. God mentioned this in the beginning of this chapter when he brought up the fate of Dothan and Abiram after their rebellion. God wants the Israelite children to have a healthy fear of what’s possible if they rebel. Sometimes we think we can only present what is good and positive to our children. If we raise them in a perfect little bubble, how will they know how to respond when satan comes to tempt them or mislead them? Or maybe we think we can’t dig up our past bones because we don’t want our children doing the same thing. This really is opposite of what God is saying. He wants us to talk about where we erred to hopefully save our children the trouble of digging themselves out of that mess. The earlier our children understand that there is good and evil and that there are consequences for evil the more prepared they will be when it comes taunting in their face. We need to make sure we present this in a way that is appropriate for their age, but the worst thing we can do is be afraid to tell them all the wonderful things God has taught us (even if they were painful lessons) and all the wonderful blessings He has poured out on us.