Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
This passage is used in the Accelerate Staff Training (for supervisors, monitors, and administrators in schools using A.C.E.), because we believe that bringing our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is our greatest responsibilities, whether as parents in the home, or as teachers at a school.
How many of us grew up in and around church, with good, Godly parents? And how many grew up a long way from the faith, and came in later in life? Those who grew up in church often cannot imagine what it would be like to not have faith, and those who didn’t know very well what it is like! And we can both agree that we want our children to grow up knowing who God is. More than that, to grow up with their own relationship with God. We want them to know that they can rely on Him, trust Him, and hopefully make good decisions and wise choices about their future with their relationship with God in mind.
However, it’s just not enough to rely on Sunday School/Kid’s Church/whatever you call it in your church. That might be 50 – 75 hours per year… compared to about 1000 hours attending school alone. Then there might be after school care, sports on the weekends or in the evenings, TV/Video game time… We have to fight time for our children (yes, we fight time). When you choose a quality Bible Based program like A.C.E. (whether in a home school or school setting), it comes along side you to compliment your parenting – attempting to promote the same values that you want to instil in your children.
Instead of them getting a little God each week, they can have their schooling saturated in the Bible – a modern equivalent to writing the commands on the doorframes, or the ‘frontlets’ (as the KJV calls them) on their hands and foreheads. The frontlets (or phylacteries in the New Testament) were little boxes that they wrote passages of Scripture in and then bound them to their hands or foreheads to remind them constantly about what was in the box. In principal, we need to be doing things ourselves, and teaching our children to do the same, that is a constant reminder of who God is, and the power of His Word.
Even with a program as great as A.C.E., and Bible studies with our kids, and a great Kids ministry, we need to have other reminders. I personally like music – if there is a song that embodies a particular scripture that I am trying to remember, or a concept I am trying to grasp, I tend to put it on repeat. Or sometimes something as simple as writing the reference on a post it note and sticking it to the mirror, computer screen, or dashboard of the car. You could screenshot it and use it as the wallpaper on your phone or tablet! I remember coming home from work one day, and my daughter had decided to make bookmarks. She was sitting with her Bible open, picking verses, and drawing pictures for them… the pictures and verses were unrelated, and some of the verses were pretty obscure (Leviticus, thankfully she hadn’t made it to Song of Solomon yet!), but I was so chuffed, as a parent, that she had taken that initiative. More recently, my son found a Bible that I had been given and left in my car (it’s always good to have a Bible handy), and claimed it and was just reading it – in the car, at the doctor’s office, at home.
My challenge: Determine to raise your kids in the Bible. In the Word of God. In a personal relationship with Him. Don’t be afraid of deeper theological questions, or even of saying “I don’t know, let’s look into it” – cherish and encourage those moments! And if it is a struggle to find hours to study and learn together, make the time you do have the highest quality study.
And when your children are your age, they will thank you for it.
Thanks Mum and Dad for raising me the way that you did.
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Ps. Karl
