Teach Your Children

Deut 6:3, 5-9
Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you… 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 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
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Another ingredient to prosperity really caught me off guard--teaching God’s word to my children. I thought I had been doing a good job because I quote the Bible to them a lot, and I make sure everyone goes to Bible study at least twice a week.

But when my pastor brought up these verses, I felt a twinge of concern. Did my children really know the word of God? Was I really doing a good job? Back when they attended Christian schools, I knew they were learning the Bible every day, but is twice a week at church enough? And it only increased my concern when my pastor said we need to go after our older children and not give up on them.

I have two sons that are over 18. One of them is a self-proclaimed agnostic who is always declaring that God, heaven, and hell are imaginary. He knows the truth, but he feels God messed up his life by giving him an abusive and mentally unstable father. So his revenge on God is to declare that He doesn’t exist. The other son knows the Lord, but he rarely reads the Bible and never goes to church. I also have a 17-year-old daughter who lives with a non-Christian lady and never goes to church. I pray for my children every day, but I want to do more.

With the younger kids, I gave them a little test. I asked them if they knew what the “greatest commandment” is. They all thought it was, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Now they know the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). I’m determined to teach them something new from God’s word every day as we drive to and from school and church.

With the older kids, it’s a little harder. I invited all three of them to church, but so far they aren’t interested. However, I do have a backup plan! Recently one of my senior pastors gave out copies of “Driven by Eternity,” by John Bevere (available on walmart.com or directly from John Bevere’s website, www.messengerintl.org ). She also played the CD dramatization of the parable in the book during her weekly Bible study. I highly recommend both the book and the CD. They changed my life, and I guarantee they will change yours, too! I got a book for my oldest son and I am ordering CD’s for the other two. Get one for yourself!

If your children are older adults and long gone from home, don’t give up! I have seen miracles at my church where parents stood in faith that their older children would come back to the Lord, and they have. One of them came back to the Lord at age 44 and is now bringing his children to church with him.

Cathleen