Thursday
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments
that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. – Deuteronomy 6:4-6
Years ago when I was working as a youth pastor, I recall
noticing that a young man (a freshman in high school) who had previously been
very involved, had not been coming to any of our ministry programs for a few
weeks. I called his home to check
on him, and to let him know that we missed seeing him at church. He wasn’t home at the time, but his
parents told me that he no longer wanted to go to church and that they were not
going to force him to go if he didn’t want to. It turned out that this young man had become sexually
involved with a girl who claimed to be an atheist. He did not want to break off the relationship with her, so
he chose to stop coming to church with his family.
Now I would agree with any parent who says that there
comes a time when a young man or woman must make his/her faith their own and
choose for themselves whether or not they will follow Christ. The only question is when? What is the age when our kids are
ready? How do you know if they are
mature enough in their faith to make the decision for themselves? More importantly, how do we help them
to grow in spiritual maturity so that they will be able to continue in their
faith as young adults?
How do you
answer your 5 year old when he comes home covered with mud and says, “I’m not
going to take a bath.” What
would you say to your 10 year old son, when he comes to breakfast on Monday
morning and announces he isn’t going to school anymore? You know what you would say! You’d say, get dressed, you’re going to
school!” Why all this timidity,
then, in the realm of spiritual guidance and growth? You wouldn’t let him wait and decide what church he wants to
go to when he is old enough, would you?
You wouldn’t wait until he’s grown up to choose whether he wishes to be
clean or dirty, would you? Do you
let him decide for himself whether to take medicine when he’s sick? How should we respond, then, when
Junior says he doesn’t want to go to Sunday school and church? It’s really not a hard question, just be consistent. Tell him/her, ‘In our house we ALL go
to Sunday school and church, and that includes me and you!’
The text above from Deut. 6 commands parents to impress
these things on our children, some
translations may say to teach them diligently. The
Hebrew word is shanan – it means
“to sharpen”, (as in sharpen a knife); when in the “intensive” form (as it is
here), it means “to teach incisively”.
It’s not just running the knife blade a few times over the sharpening
stone, it’s going over and over and over it until it’s razor sharp. The idea is
that we are to keep going over and over and over the Scriptures with our
children until they’re “razor sharp” in their knowledge of His Word.
In Paul’s teaching, he wrote, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to
you…” What have you received from
the Lord? Do you have anything to
share with the kids? This is not
about becoming a Bible scholar or a great Sunday school teacher at home. It’s learning to talk about God’s Word
at home. It’s making God’s Word a part of your vocabulary. God’s Word isn’t
going to be a part of your vocabulary with your kids unless it’s a part of your
life. You need to spend time in God’s Word. You be sure to be hearing what God
is saying to you. You become
sharp, so that you can sharpen your children.
Jeff Frazier
Posts
4 comments:
People who believe in God naturally want other people to believe in God too. Religion stays alive because believers pressure others to do so. But I don't believe in God. I think that people, especially by High School age, should not be forced to stay with their parents religion. They should be free to actually THINK about this realistically. Religious people are usually well meaning but misguided.
Dear Anonymous,
You are right that students (by about high school age) should not be "forced" to stay with their parents religion.
However, if a mother or father of a young child sincerely believes in the reality of God and with all his/her heart, and believes in the truth of the Bible as the ultimate authority for life, wouldn't it make sense that they would want to pass this along to their child?
In fact, you could argue that it would actually be unloving for a parent who believed that the only path to eternal life is through Jesus Christ, to withhold this knowledge from their child.
I do agree that kids need to eventually decide for themselves what they will believe about who Jesus Christ is and what the Bible says about Him. Fundamentally, Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with the God of the universe through His Son Jesus Christ!
For this reason, you cannot ultimately know God through someone else's relationship, you must come to know Him on your own. This is why a Christian parent should teach and instruct hi/her children diligently from the Bible about who God is and what it means to follow Jesus - so that they can someday make the decision for themselves.
I am sorry to hear that you do not believe in God (but He still believes in you!) I hope someday you will come to know His amazing love and grace in your life.
In the meantime, I am glad you are reading this blog and taking the time to express your thoughts!
Pastor Jeff
I think that you have to give some respect to the person who talked to his atheist friend. For the first time in his ife he thought about religion objectively. He decided that there are no gods. Rather than try to apply extra brainwashing, why don't you read some books and srticles about atheism? You're the one who needs help. It's silly to believe in an invisible magic man in the sky. Allow yourself to grow. It's so much more rewarding to see things as they really are than to reduce yourself to religious hocus pocus.
Dear Amonymous,
(not sure if you're the same one)
You are right that I need help and thanks for encouraging me to continue to grow! I do try to read widely and from a variety of perspectives. I hope you will also stay open and willing to grow.
God (that magic man in the sky) Bless!
Pastor Jeff
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