God’s Surprising Strategy for Teaching His Words to Our Kids

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. Deuteronomy 11:18-21

I remember some days leaving home with our kids in the morning and, after school and practices, not getting back in the driveway until the dark. We were all busy and time went by fast. It made me realize how fast they grew up and how important it was that they had time with Jesus’ word. When I was taught these verses, I realized how real God cares about parents teaching his Word to our kids. Jesus wants to be in the dirt and grime of our kids’ days. He wants them to know that he is there when they wake up and worried about their coming day. He is there when they go to sleep and afraid of the dark. He is there in the angry outburst moments and the quiet look-at-a-sunset moments. Jesus is with us in our homes with real truth and real forgiveness and real unconditional love.

Kids know that when we tell them.

His Words are so living and active that a Bible story about David and Goliath can become a conversation starter for a child struggling with his identity or fear.

In the Bible, when God speaks about children learning about him, he doesn’t talk about a religious school; he talks about them learning at home. It shows how very important it is that Jesus can talk to our kids every day by his Words.

Our kids have got to know that they have a very real, very powerful, and very gracious God who is their Savior and Brother and Father and King.

A Daily Prayer:
Dear Jesus, Help us to remember that your words are the only thing we teach our kids that last forever. Amen.