When do you get together as a family? For meals… trips out… watching your favourite TV programme? How about to read the Bible together, and to encourage each other in your relationship with God?
Most parents are used to sending their children to school for their general education. So we do the same for their spiritual education by giving them to the children’s and youth leaders at a local church. If you have good children’s and youth groups at your church, that’s something to thank God for. Your children will benefit hugely from them. But if we check out what the Bible says, we’ll see that the responsibility for the spiritual education of children does not lie with the church, or its leaders. It lies with parents!
A key passage is Deuteronomy 6 v 6-7 ‘These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.’
Sitting at home, walking, lying down, getting up. This isn’t Sunday morning stuff – it’s every day living. So, how can you live out Deuteronomy 6 as part of your family life? Hopefully the following suggestions will help:
If God has given you the gift of children, He has also given you the responsibility to teach them about Him. So make a start –and ask God to help you. He will!
Alison Mitchell is a senior editor at The Good Book Company, where she has worked on a range of products including Bible-reading notes for children and families, and the Christianity Explored range of resources. She is the best-selling author of The Christmas Promise and the award-winning Jesus and the Lions' Den.
