Thursday, November 7, 2019
I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. Psalm 145:1-5
There is a saying that has bothered me as really
dumb ever since I first said it:
I’m not going to press faith in God on my kids; they can choose
when they’re old enough.
The Psalmist, King David, echoed the incredibly
important weight of responsibility for parents to pass-along the faith of our
fathers to the next generation, telling their children of the power and lovingkindness
of God. Frankly this issue is much too
important to let the formative years of childhood pass without exposing children
to even the basics of Scripture, worship, and living faithfully as a child of
God’s creating.
When God called Abraham to be the father
of a nation that was to be very special to God’s purposes, and preserved that
nation even in Egyptian captivity, the name of God was to be central to all
they did. It was so important Moses
wrote down the instructions:
“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Simply put, the parent who fails at this
point is disobedient to what God has commanded.
Unfortunately, as a young parent, I thought that really dumb
statement was a good choice; I didn’t want to be “guilty” of
hauling my children to church if they didn’t want to go. But the more I matured the more I began to
realize I was attempting to be my children’s buddy; in the doing I was avoiding
being their parent. We would never apply
that let the children choose nonsense to things like brushing
their teeth or allowing them to choose to stay up all night playing video games
when they had to be up early for school the next day. And important as those issues are, healthy
teeth and applying oneself to getting an education are temporal matters; in 100
years nobody will remember your G.P.A. or if you had dentures. By comparison, coming to terms with your
eternal soul, and your standing before God is a matter that carries weight to
the far reaches of meaning and purpose in the universe.
If you’re a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or just someone who has
influence in a child’s future, check closely what real impact you’re having on
the next generation.
Parents have a vital responsibility to see to it that their children form
good personal habits, manners, language, and attitude, are simple no-brainers…if
you don’t do that for your children they’ll grow up to be
selfish, obnoxious adults. If you fail
at teaching them who God is, you’ve blown it eternally!
