If you have been reading this blog, you will know I am the proud father of Victoria. I am pretty accurate when I say that our lives (Maria’s and mine) revolve around this treasure God gave us five and a half years ago. Every night, one of the main points of our prayers is that one day, Victoria will be a disciple of Jesus. We pray that she will invite Jesus to be come to her life, and that He will be the center of her life for as long as she lives. Maria and I are very different, yet we want Victoria to share the faith both of us came to have.
As Pastor Ken was talking about Timothy last Sunday, he mentioned that Timothy had learnt to know God and to love God. As we heard, his mother was Jewish, but his father was a Greek. Despite having a pagan father, young Timothy grew to be a faithful follower of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah of his mother. I think that, as Christian parents, we should all be concerned and do everything we can in our power to inspire our kids to follow in our steps. Deuteronomy 6:20 – 24 give us advice on how to do this.
“In the future your children will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of these laws, decrees, and regulations that the Lord our God has commanded us to obey?’
“Then you must tell them, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand. The Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people. He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our ancestors. And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day. For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.’”
The first thing I see these verses tell us is that we need to tell our children who we are. Notice that the text says, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand.” We need to tell the younger generations who we are because if we don’t, someone else will tell them who they should be.
The second thing the text says is that we need to tell our children what God has done for us. Notice when it says, “The Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people.” Tell them what Jesus has done in your life, tell them of the dark moments when God showed up, tell them of the prayers He answered, tell them of the hope He has given you.
Finally, tell them that, because of the first two, the best thing they should do is to trust in Him. “And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day.” There is hope, there is a righteous path, there is blessing and there is peace when we follow the instruction God has given for our lives.
In the cacophony of messages of despair, hopelessness, sin and death this world has to offer, let’s make sure our kids listen to the message that God has given us and them. Help them know what it means to know God and love God.
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