I believe that our nation is under God’s judgment. Whether it’s gay marriage and the attempts of homosexuals to counterfeit God’s design, or the abortion holocaust that has taken the lives of 40 million babies, the evidence is obvious. There are other aspects of God’s judgment that are not always recognized. I believe that the breakdown within family life is also the result of God’s judging in our land and our economy. I have talked to countless parents who are overwhelmed. Burdened by debt and struggling to afford just the basics of a middle class lifestyle, many couples with children are burning the candle at both ends just to pay the utilities and house payment, the latter of which is taking up a larger and larger percentage of income these days. One of the first casualties of families where both parents need to be out working full time away from home can be the discipleship of the children. Exhaustion is the enemy of planned family time in the Word and so many families today are running like rats on a treadmills, trying to shuttle children from one activity to the next after a day at the office. I read recently that many families with school-aged children eat 4 or more fast food meals a week in transit from one sports or activity to the next. Christian families are no exception to this rule. Many Christian families believe that church youth group once a week or the child’s Bible class at school is sufficient to inculcate Scriptural knowledge into their children. They are mistaken.
I have learned in the raising of my five children that discipleship and Bible teaching requires a purposeful attitude or it won’t happen. Home education can be particularly effective in this the parent is allowed to determine how much time a day is spent in studying the Word, learning hymns and basic catechesis in the faith. Not everyone can home educate. The question then is, can you teach your children sufficiently in the time that you do have with your children when homework and other activities often interfere? My children are now 20, 19, 18, 10 and 10. I can tell you from experience that parents often sabotage their own efforts by not saying no to their children. There is a belief out today that if your children are not signed up for kick-boxing, soccer, basketball, wrestling, ballet, gymnastics and underwater basket weaving, they will grow up deprived, underdeveloped and lacking the competitive qualities necessary in our American culture. Hogwash. We create our own problems and then whine about how are overextended. I know that I am old-fashioned in this but I did not let my children do this. My son is ten and he has never played on a competitive team. He’s played football since he was old enough to hold a ball, but it was always with the neighborhood kids down the block. He swims but not for ribbons or awards. He rides his bike but not in junior BMX competitions. I have nothing against team sports, but today children still in diapers are signed up for uniforms and cleats because their parents want it, not them. It’s about peer pressure and expectations, none of which have the slightest to do with the actual needs of young children. We are a nation of lemmings who mindlessly follow the parents next door right off a cliff into family life oblivion. This isn’t a diatribe against team sports for young elementary aged children but rather a point being made about priorities. I learned a long time ago that I can’t do it all and trying to do it all nearly killed me. When we cancel out time wasting and activities of limited value for young children we buy time for what matters.
The vast and tragic biblical illiteracy in America today is the result of bad priorities. Parents have valued personal affluence and the American definition of success more than they have valued God’s clear commands as articulated in Deuteronomy 6. Biblical ignorance comes with a high price tag and we are paying that now in the church. Basic Christian doctrine is now being tossed out the door as unimportant. Essentials for which the martyrs paid with their blood are now viewed as unnecessarily divisive matters that should be overlooked. There’s a reason this is happening. Gross spiritual neglect that goes several generations back is that reason.
The antidote to all this is the rediscovery of the Word of God. Just as King Josiah rediscovered the Law amid the ruins of the temple, (2 Kings 22:3-10), we must pull the Holy Scriptures from the rubble of our evangelical churches and begin to teach and instruct our young. It begins in babyhood. I have video of two of my toddlers learning verses for every letter of the alphabet. Ten years later, this morning, we sat at the dining room table and we went through our Scripture memory cards. We reviewed the books of the Bible, the names of the 12 Apostles, reviewed Luther’s explanations for the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles Creed, continued our journey through the Gospel of John and discussed a key verse we learned from James, chapter 4. “Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” That applies to parents as well and I thought, sitting there today, about the vast riches of the Bible and how much more I should have taught my children. We haven’t even scratched the surface.
Let me encourage parents to seek first the Kingdom of God. But be prepared. Everything in the world will be thrown at you when you set out to do this. Everything around me seems to war against having the right priorities. Part of the reason I deleted the old Slice format was that it was robbing me of time. Be prepared to jettison anything the Lord shows you is preventing you from not only being in the Word yourself, but teaching it to your children. Be prepared to do this even if your distraction is a great success by the definition of others. We will all give an account before God for how we raised the children entrusted to us. I freely admit that I should have done a better job. Through God’s grace, I hope to make good use of the mothering time I have left with my two youngest children because it matters for eternity.
The beautiful and old New England Primer, available here online, contains wonderful things for little children to learn. Simple rewards for getting their memory work correct works wonders for preschoolers. Scroll down to see Scripture and hymns for children by Isaac Watts, etc. I can’t recommend highly enough the Bible teaching materials here at Christian Liberty Press. They have workbooks beginning with preschoolers, all the way through high school. Their four book survey of the Scriptures for grades 4-8 is just excellent.
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