For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a
law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should teach them to
their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet
to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, Psalms 78:5-6
The primary
responsibility and authority for training a child clearly rests with the
parents. It is an awesome task but it is also an awesome opportunity. But the responsibility is not the parent’s
alone. Parenting is to be done in the context of a community of believers. As a spiritual community we want to be a
support to the parents in their training and nurturing of their kids. We want
single parents to find a place here where their kids can see wholesome, caring
role models.
What must our kids
know? They must know about the goodness and the greatness and the faithfulness
of the Lord our God.
The greatest
lessons we teach our children are by showing them the things we cherish and the
things we dislike, the things we give attention to and the things we ignore,
the things we value and the things we don’t value, the things we spend time
doing and the things we neglect.
Basically, we pass on what we think is important and what we don’t think
is important by the example of our lives.
For years the
church has been the primary place where our children have received spiritual
instruction and formation (prayer, Bible studies, worship, and service) and we
as a church have been happy to teach these things. However, there is a recent movement that has
suggested that the church’s approach has been unsuccessful and unbiblical in
many ways.
·
Recent
research has shown that the church has about forty hours in a given year to
invest in the heart and life of a child, while the home has about three
thousand!
·
Research
has shown that 60-90% of kids leave the church once they graduate high
school.
These are sobering statistics. As a parent I am not comfortable leaving it
up to someone else who is not as invested as I am in my own child.
Be Faithful to the CONTENT of
God’s Truth
We don’t need to come up with some new spiritual reality to get our kids
through these perilous times.
1.
The
same God who brought Noah through the flood and Israel through the Red Sea and
Daniel through the lion’s den can bring our kids through whatever they may
face. The Old Time Religion really is good enough for me and you and our kids.
2.
The
substance, the reality, the basics will never change and we must never try to
change them. People still need to know their Bibles. People still need to know
how to pray and worship. People still need to know how to love their enemies
and forgive others. The essentials of what our fathers and our mothers told us
have not changed and must be passed on.
The Bible tells us
that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Our children need to know
the great stories of the bible that tell of God’s wonderful truths. They need to know that the same God that
created the universe was with Noah and his family during the flood, and was
there with Paul when the earthquake shook the prison walls and they came
crashing down. His truths are the same
today as they were then and that same God loves them more than anyone else
possible could.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
