6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. ~ Deuteronomy 6:6-7
5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. ~ Psalms 78:5-8
As a child, I always thought it was strange and quite funny that our God was the only God referred to as God in the Bible. I thought it was strange that everyone else referred to their god by a name, whether Baal, Molech, Asherah, Dagon, etc., but when referring to our God, it was simply God. As I got older, I realized it’s not that our God has no name, or isn’t called by a name, or even that His Name is God, but that the name of God wasn’t emphasized or clearly translated in the Bibles we read. That my teachers at school, when I brought it up, were either ignorant of why or simply didn’t see it as important for me or my classmates to know or understand. We’re forced to take Bible class, learn random Bible verses, the kings of Israel and Judah in order, random Bible stories they deemed important, but we’re not actually pushed to understand the Bible. Not actually taught to study the Bible. Not actually raised to love the Bible.
Proverbs warns us that we have to raise up a child in the way they should go. How can we do that when we don’t take the time to even learn the Bible ourselves? We want our children to learn, study, and love the Bible, when we, adults in the Church, don’t do any of those things. How can we want and expect our children to do something that we ourselves don’t do? We lead our children by example. If we tell them the Bible is important. It’s holy. It’s key to our lives, but if we won’t take time to learn it or, at the very least, search for answers to their questions, then our children will see that we say it’s important, but our actions say otherwise. They’ll see we say one thing but do another.
This life is filled with so many distractions and temptations; the world doesn’t need any help with that. We only have a short time to influence our children. We only have a few short years where we can teach them and raise them in the ways of righteousness, so don’t waste them. Don’t waste those years; take advantage of each moment. Encourage them in their walk with the LORD, lead by example, and answer questions. Don’t just brush off their curiosity; fuel it. Stir it up within. There is nothing on this earth better for them to be curious about than the LORD and His Word. And if they ask a question you don’t know the answer to, research it. Pray about it. And be honest; it’s okay to not know every single thing, but it’s not okay to just give up and shut them down. God doesn’t ever demand blind faith. He always makes Himself known first. He sends prophets, teachers, apostles, etc., for the building of the Church so that we might know, understand, and grow in His Word. So, how can we do any less?
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Feed Their Curiosity.
15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD (YHWH, Yahweh, Jehovah), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”
Exodus 3:15