Christian Tips for Parents – Teach your children well
In Deuteronomy 6:6-9 we read about God’s instructions to educate our children spiritually. In this passage, we see how high a priority this education is for God: “These words that I command you today will be on your heart. You will diligently teach them to your children, and you will speak of them when you sit in your chair and when you walk on the road. and when you lie down, and when you get 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.”
The words “teach them” in this passage (“teach them diligently to your children”) literally means “to awaken.” We are called to whet our children’s appetite for the things of God. We should try to make the things of God pleasing to our children so that their appetite for spiritual things will increase. As time goes by.
The words “teach them” are also present tense in the original Biblical language. This means that teaching must be a perpetual, permanent and continuous activity. In other words, it shouldn’t be limited to just Sundays. It should be an effort every day.
There is another important meaning of the words “teach them” in the original Biblical languages, that is, “to sharpen.” We, as Christian parents, are called to Sharpen the minds of our children with principles of the Word of God so that their thought processes are influenced by God’s instructions. As we seek to do this day by day, our children will surely build a Christian worldview in their minds so that they come to interpret the world around them in a Christian way.
As Christian parents, our goal should be to equip our children to interpret culture “Christianly.” We should gradually allow them to see the world through a Christian lens. Helping them understand the scriptures in a fun and engaging way is one of the best ways to do this.
Along with this, we as Christian parents must seek to instill in our children strong defenses against conformity to a fallen world that is steeped in secularism. As Scripture warns, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2a).
Christian educators tell us that the child will build a worldview with the data he has in his mind, and if the biblical and moral content is not part of the “data bank” in his brain, his vision of reality simply leave it out!
So, let us obey God and educate our children well.