Does what we teach our children about our faith really matter?
In 2001, as I watched the media coverage of President George W. Bush’s inauguration, I heard news commentators make comparisons between his values and those of President Clinton. They said that while both men were baby boomers, President Clinton was a reflection of what the media called the “boomers’ value system” while President Bush had adopted the values of his father’s generation rather than of his peers.
They expressed amazement that two men from the same boomer culture could arrive at midlife with such different value systems.
How God Tells Us to Teach Values
The explanation of how two people can have dissimilar values within the same culture is explained by these words that God spoke to the Hebrew people: “And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-8 NKJV)
Teach Diligently
An important word found in this version is “diligently.” God wants us to work industriously at passing our value system to the next generation. The rest of the Scripture indicates that this is to happen pretty much 24/7. That sounds like a fulltime job to me.
Question: How in the world will you manage to teach your faith around the clock and to teach it diligently?
July 21, 2012 at 10:14 am
By living it … which is much easier said than done!