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DEUTERONOMY 6:4-19
4
Hear, O
Israel
: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might.
6 And these words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down,
and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for
a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them
upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
10 And it shall be, when the
LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy
fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly
cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good
things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst
not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt
have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou
forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the
land
of
Egypt
, from the house of bondage.
13 Thou shalt fear the LORD
thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14 Ye shall not go after other
gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the LORD thy God is a
jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled
against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD
your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
17 Ye shall diligently keep
the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his
statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
18 And thou shalt do that
which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with
thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD
sware unto thy fathers,
19 To cast out all thine
enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.
The book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell address to the
people of
Israel
just before they invaded
Canaan
to take up residence in the Promised Land. It is really a family scene.
Husbands, wives, and children by the tens of thousands are on the
edge of enemy territory, and Moses reminds them of the importance of
maintaining strong families in the midst of a heathen society.
Howard Hendricks wisely said, “We are surrounded by foreign,
hostile, and home-shattering influences in our world today.
The supportive elements of society no longer feed and shade us.
The Christian home must blossom in a field of weeds. . . . We have
to learn to navigate in the midst of a storm.
This is not the ideal—it’s much better to learn to navigate in
calm seas. But that’s no
longer an option for us. Our
society is an ever-worsening sea of turbulence, so learn to navigate we
must! Otherwise, our children
(along with us) sink!”
In Deuteronomy 6:4-13 Moses spells out four basic principles which are as
potent for us today as they were in Moses day in establishing strong
families in an unstable world.
PRINCIPLE ONE:
HEAR THE TRUTH CONTINUALLY.
Verse 4:
“Hear, O
Israel
! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
one!”
To the Jews this passage from Deuteronomy 6 was known as
the great Shema.
Shema is a Hebrew word translated as “hear”or “listen.” The Jews
considered this to be the most important passage in the book of
Deuteronomy, if not in the entire Bible.
Orthodox Jews would repeat it at least twice a day.
They would repeat it in the congregation.
As
soon as a child began to speak,
he was taught to repeat daily, with the utmost awe and reverence, the
ringing Hebrew words of the Shema
until he knew them by heart. He continued to repeat them twice a day in
his prayers throughout all the days of his life. And the Shema was his last conscious utterance as he lay dying. Martyrs
through the ages spoke these words as they met their deaths at the hands
of their enemies.
God want us to hear continually that
the Lord (Yahweh or Jehovah) is totally unique, unlike all other deities,
and He alone is God. He has a
monopoly on being God. He has
cornered the market. There’s
only one God, and His throne is not a duplex.
God is not a part-time king. He
is God! And He is “a
jealous God.” We
have no right to worship anything or anybody but him.
This is the unshakeable foundation for
a strong and stable home – the acknowledgement of ONE
LORD, and it is imperative that we celebrate God in front of our
children.
A.
ACKNOWLEDGE GOD’S PRESENCE
The Christian home ought to be a place
where God is present in our lives just as salt is present in the sea.
It should be utterly natural and normal to talk about God—to
relate to Him and to break into prayer at any moment.
TALK ABOUT HIM
READ STORIES ABOUT HIM
SING ABOUT HIM
SPEAK TO HIM
B.
SUBMIT TO GOD’S AUTHORITY
Moses reminds us
that “the Lord (Jehovah, Yahweh) is God (elohiym, the supreme One…
the One in authority).
God, in turn, has delegated authority
to parents in the home. It is the parent who, in a very real sense, stands
in the place of God before the child.
As such he is to demand obedience from his children.
There really is no choice here.
It is not a matter of whether or not the parent wishes to compel
obedience. God has
specifically commanded the parents to make the child obey.
Colossians
3:20
— “Children, obey your parents
in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”
It is wise to point out to the child
that God holds the parent responsible for the child’s obedience and that
disobedience will result in discipline.
Proverbs
13:24
—“He that spareth his rod
hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
Proverbs
29:17 —“Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall
give delight unto thy soul.”
Proverbs
19:18
—“Chasten thy son while there
is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.”
1. Parents should agree and cooperate on rules and punishments
Nothing will so weaken discipline as
to have one parent insist upon it, and the other openly disagree. Still
worse is when a child, after he is disciplined by one parent, is allowed
to run into the arms of the other seeking and finding solace.
Not only is the effect of the disciplinary action completely lost,
but the child is unconsciously taught how to defeat further punishment.
2.
Discuss fully the reason why the punishment is being given.
An important, common sense rule for
parents is carefully thought-out speech.
Always plan to “say what you mean.”
Parents should previously agree on what is to be said or required.
When one parent speaks he should be speaking for both.
3. Talk with
the Lord on all matters.
Seek wisdom from God.
James 1:5
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
4. Teach your children that all discipline is
under the authority of Christ.
5.
Be Firm and Consistent
Mean
what you say, and say what you mean.
Perhaps the best example was a ten-year-old boy named Robert, who was a
patient of Dr. William Slonecker. Dr.
Slonecker said his pediatric staff dreaded the days when Robert was
scheduled for an office visit. He
literally attacked the clinic, grabbing instruments and files and
telephones. His passive mother
could do little more than shake her head in bewilderment.
During one physical examination, Dr.
Slonecker observed severe cavities in Robert’s teeth and knew that the
boy must be referred to a local dentist.
But who could be given the honor?
A referral like Robert could mean the end of a professional
friendshjip. Dr. Slonecker
eventually decided to send him to an older dentist who reportedly
understood children. The
confrontation that followed now stands as one of the classic moments in
the history of human conflict.
Robert arrived in the dental office,
prepared for battle.
“Get in the chair! Young man,”
said the doctor. “No
chance!” replied the boy.
“Son, I told you to climb onto the
chair, and that’s what I intend for you to do,” said the dentist.
Robert stared at his opponent for a
moment and then replied, “If you make make me get in that chair, I will
take off all my clothes.”
The dentist calmly said, “Son, take
‘em off.” The boy
forthwith removed his shirt, undershirt, shoes and socks, and then looked
up in defiance.
“All right, son,” said the
dentist. “Now get on the
chair.”
“You didn’t hear me,” sputtered
Robert. “I said if you make me get on that chair, I will take off all my
clothes.”
“Son, take ‘em off,” replied the
man. Robert proceeded to
remove his pants and shorts, finally standing totally naked before the
dentist and his assistant.
“Now, son, get in the chair,” said
the doctor. Robert did as he
was told, and sat cooperatively through the entire procedure.
When the cavities were drilled and filled, he was instructe4d to
step down from the chair.
“Give me my clothes now,” said the
boy.
“I’m sorry,” replied the
dentist. “Tell your mother
that we’re going to keep your clothes tonight.
She can pick them up tomorrow.”
Can you comprehend the shock
Robert’s mother received when the door to the waiting room opened, and
there stood her pink son, as naked as the day he was born?
The room was filled with patients, but Robert and his mom walked
past them and into the hall. The
went down a public elevator and into the parking lot, ignoring the
snickers of onlookers.
The next day, Robert’s mother
returned to retrieve his clothes, and asked to have a word with the
dentist. However, she did not
come to protest. These were
her sentiments: “You don’t know how much I appreciate what happened
here yesterday. You see,
Robert has been blackmailing me about his clothes for years.
Whenever we are in a public place, such as a grocery store, he
makes unreasonable demands on me. If
I don’t immediately buy him what he wants, he threatens to take off all
his clothes. You are the first
person who has called his bluff, doctor, and the impact on Robert has been
incredible!
C.
WORSHIP HIS MAJESTY
I fear that
we are going to lose this generation, our children and grandchildren if we
don’t get back to a true worship of Almighty God.
We need to recapture the wonder of God and a genuine sense of His
holiness. All too
often we relegate worship to the church, but it ought to begin in the
home.
FAMILY DEVOTIONS
PRIVATE DEVOTIONS
CHURCH & SUNDAY SCHOOL
HONOR THE LORD’S DAY
God knows we need that day of rest.
The story is told of a man who swallowed an egg whole.
He was afraid to move because he was afraid it would break.
But he was afraid to sit still because he was afraid it would
hatch. There are a lot of
people like that today—so frantic and pressured in life they don’t
know which way to go. And the
place where the pressure and the restlessness often hit home is in
the home.
Homes today are places of upheaval.
There used to be a time when a man would come home, put his hat
down, wipe his brow, and say, “Boy, it’s good to be home.
It’s a jungle out there.” Today
the jungle is on the inside.
God knew we needed that day set aside
for rest.
LEAD YOUR CHILDREN TO A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS
CHRIST
To us, we pray,
Lord, give the joy
Of leading our
own girl and boy
To that most
blessed and holy place
Where they will
meet Thee face to face,
Confess their
sins, see Christ’s oblation,
Then in faith
receive salvation.
While they are
still beneath our wing
Accomplish,
Lord, this holy thing.
This joy, more
sweet than any other,
Belongs to every
Christian dad and mother.
— Unknown
PRINCIPLE TWO:
LOVE THE LORD FERVENTLY
Verse
5: 5 “And thou shalt love
the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy might.”
Moses is saying that not only are we to have one
Lord, we are to have one love.
We are to love Jesus Christ with “all”
our heart, and with “all”
our soul, and with “all”
our might.
First and foremost, this verse is
commanding parents to love God supremely.
We cannot pass on to our children a love for God that we ourselves
do not possess. You
cannot get someone else excited about something that makes you yawn.
Someone once said, “If you want
other people to bleed, you’re going to have to hemorrhage.”
“And thou
shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy might.”
1. IT IS
TO BE A SINCERE LOVE – “With
all your heart.” We are
to love not in word only, but with sincerity from our innermost being.
Children need to see in parents and
grandparents a burning, passionate, sincere love for the things of God.
Kids can spot a phony a mile away, and it is the phoniness of
parents, by and large, that turns kids off to the things of God.
If your kids see you putting other
things ahead of God, they will become discouraged and disillusioned, like
a young Jewish boy who once lived in
Germany
. His father was a successful merchant, and the family practiced their
Jewish faith. But then they
moved to another German city, and the boy’s father announced that they
would no longer attend synagogue. They
were going to join the Lutheran church.
The boy was very surprised and asked his father why the family was
joining the Lutheran church. His
father’s answer was something like, “For business reasons.
There are so many Lutherans in this town that I can make good
business contacts at the Lutheran church.
It will be good for business.”
That boy, who had a deep interest in
religion, became so disillusioned with his father that something died
within him. He said to
himself, “My father has no real convictions.”
The incident helped to turn him against religion with a vengeance.
That young boy later moved to
England
and began to write. His name
was Karl Marx. As the father
of communism he wrote the Communist Manifesto, in which he called religion
“the opiate of the masses.”
I wonder if world history would have been different
had Karl Marx’s father heeded the admonition of the great Shema of
Israel: “Hear,
O
Israel
: The LORD our God is one Lord, and
thou shalt love the LORD they God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy might.”
2. OUR LOVE IS TO BE A SELFLESS LOVE.
“With
all thy soul.”
While the heart is the innermost part
of our being, the soul is more external and synonymous with life.
We can pretty well measure the
spiritual love of men or women by looking at two books in their home:
their checkbook and their date book—their bank account and their
calendar. How they spend their
money and their time says a lot about how selfless their love for God
really is.
True love for God always translates
into obedience to Him.
“We
know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His
commandments. For this is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not
grievous” (1 John 5:2,3).
A selfless love will be evident in our
relationships.
—TELL YOUR CHILDREN THEY ARE
LOVED. When was the
last time you said to your son or daughter, “Son (or daughter), I love
you. You are a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ and we love you.”
Rebellious children often grow up
rebellious because they feel they are never accepted, appreciated, owned,
or loved.
—EDIFY,
ENCOURAGE, PRAISE AND BLESS YOUR CHILDREN
“Let
no corrupt (rotten) communication word proceed out of your mouth, but only
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto
the hearers” (Ephesians 6:29).
—EXPRESS APPRECIATION
TO YOUR CHILDREN
—GIVE
TIME AND ATTENTION TO YOUR CHILDREN
Successful Christian parenting
involves identification with the child in all the details and delights of
life. Mix fun with faith.
Find time to fill each day with at least a few moments of family
togetherness.
Dr. James Jeremiah told the story of a
mechanic who, after a hard day’s work, was seen by a friend playing
baseball with his son. The friend asked, "Bill, aren’t you
tired?" "Why, yes, I am. Of course I’m tired."
"Well, what under the sun are you doing that for?" asked the
friend. "You’re going to end up with a backache for sure."
"Oh," he said, "I’d rather have the backache now than the
heartache later on."
Edgar A. Guest
wrote the following challenging poem:
I knew a father once who sent his little boy
away,
Who had not time to spare for him and what he had to say;
He scowled to see his eager face, and ordered him to go,
And what was in that little mind he didn't care to know.
Now, little boys are quick to learn, and as the weeks went by,
To gain his father's confidence this youngster ceased to try.
He'd learned he was a busy man, and never sought his
door,
And till the day it was too late he bothered him no more.
Then, when the shame had come to him, the father hung his head,
"Why should I bear this burden now?" he sorrowfully said.
And that small voice of conscience answered him by night and day,
"You told him not to bother you. You ordered him away."
—
HELP YOUR CHILDREN IN THE AFFAIRS OF THEIR LIVES
3.
IT IS TO BE A STRONG LOVE —“With
all your might."
We are to love and serve Jesus Christ
with every inch, every ounce, every nerve, and every sinew of our body.
This includes any kind of strength we may have—emotional strength,
financial strength, intellectual strength.
You are to use it all in loving and obeying God.
A passionate love for God will prompt
us to guard our homes for His glory and guard it against the encroachment
of the world through TV, internet, book, music, etc.
Set firm but loving limits
for your children. Don’t
be afraid to tell them that MTV, for example is out of bounds, or that HBO
(Hell’s Box Office) is not coming into your home.
We are foolish if we think we or our children can watch immoral
programming and not be affected. “Can a man take fire in
his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” (Proverbs 6:27).
A Godly parents’ pledge is spelled
out in Psalm 101: “I
will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. . . . I will walk within my
house with a perfect heart. I
will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that
turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A
froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off:
him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they
may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.
He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that
telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.”
The problem in America
today is that we have too many idols and not enough heroes.
We have sex idols and rock music idols and sports idols.
But where are the true heroes—the people worth admiring and
emulating because of their character and integrity?
One way you can help your children avoid this kind of idolatry is
to help them find some real heroes and carefully examine their idols.
Instill in your children a love for wholesome books such as the
biographies of great men of faith.
PRINCIPLE THREE:
TEACH THE YOUNG DILIGENTLY
6
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine
heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down,
and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for
a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them
upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
God is saying if we want our homes to
be strong in an unstable world, we must take God’s commandments
seriously and hand them down to our children.
The ten commandments have been all but lost in our homes and our
nation. They have been removed
from our schools, our courtrooms, etc.
It will not be well with us and with our children if we do not make
some radical changes in our homes and begin teaching the commandments of
God. God’s
commandments are not obsolete, but absolute.
We complain that the Ten Commandments
can no longer be posted in public places, but let me ask, “How many
Christian parents know the 10 commandments and have them posted in our
homes or in our minds.”
God is saying to parents, “It is
your responsibility, not the government’s or the school’s
responsibility, to teach these commandments to your children.”
The great problem today is not
delinquent kids, but dropout dads and misguided moms who have failed to
hand down God’s truths from one generation to another.
A.
TEACH CONSISTENLY
“teach”….the
root term translated “teach”
here suggests “repeating”
—telling over and over again, line upon line.
Proverbs
22:6 — “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old,
he will not depart from it.”
The word “train” comes from a word root that means “palate” or “roof of the
mouth.” The ancient
Arabs used a form of this verb to denote the action of a midwife rubbing
the palate of a newborn child with olive oil or crushed dates to give it a
desire for food. The word
connotes the idea of “creating a
desire for” or “creating a
taste for.” Christian
parents are called up to develop in a child a personal desire for the
things of God—a hunger for His Word and a desire for fellowship with His
people.
If the child at a young age is given a
desire for the Lord and His ways—if he “tastes” the reality of genuine godly experiences and the joy of
following God’s Word—he will not want to turn aside from his spiritual
heritage when he reaches adulthood. It
will stick with him for his entire life.
“Train
up a child in the way he should
go” or
“according to his way.” A
child who is properly trained is trained in keeping with his or her own
way, not our way, parents. Admittedly,
you and I may know the proper path very well.
But the verse is not just referring to the ultimate goal of
bringing a child into right relationship with God and ultimately into a
happy and prosperous future. It
refers to the makeup of a child—his unique characteristics and
mannerism, which Scripture calls “his way.” The
Hebrew rod is dereck.
It is used in Proverbs 30, for example, to describe the manner or
way of four things. Eagle in sky, serpent on rock, ship in sea, and way of
a man with a maid. The eagle,
for example does not fly three miles north, stop, and take a right,.
Its style is far more coordinated and beautiful.
The eagle has unique mannerism.
It soars unlike any other bird of the sky.
If you’ve ever seen an eagle in flight, you know what AI mean.
You find yourself intrigued by “the way’ of an eagle in the
sky.
B.
TEACH CREATIVELY
“diligently”
in English is actually an adverb, but in Hebrew the root term is a
verb that means “to
sharpen.” So
literally: “and you shall sharpen your sons”
One translation (The NIV) doesn’t miss it far when it says,
“You shall impress them on your
children.” The word “impress”
literally means “to whet.”
We are to whet our children’s appetites for the things of God.
Our goal is to make the things of God palatable to our children so
they will grow in their desire for them.
The word “impress” is also a present-tense word.
This means that the impressing is to be a continuous activity.
It’s not just a Sunday thing.
It’s a seven-day-a-week thing.
Ruth mentioned creative ways in imparting the word.
C.
TEACH CONVERSATIONALLY
“You
shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest
by the way.”
The Hebrews had a term for making a
formal proclamation, as in delivering a lecture. But
that is not the word used here. There’s
also a term for just talking, and that’s the one used here.
That is significant! We
are to talk of spiritual things just as we would talk about anything else
in our home. You talk
about the world series. No big
deal. You just talk about
that. You talk about what
you’re going to do next week. You
don’t lecture on it. You
don’t make a big announcement, you simply talk about it.
You talk about the pressure you felt today from so-and-so.
You talk about what you’re going to have for supper.
You don’t hold classes on it, you merely talk about it.
There’s a natural easygoing flow of conversation.
That’s the word used here. That
is what will make your Christianity authentic.
It isn’t a Sunday lifestyle.
It is a Monday, Tues….etc. lifestyle.
God fits comfortably into the entire
conversation. And at any
place where His name is inserted, it fits.
When you are out walking, or riding in the car, etc.
“When
Thou liest down
and when thou risest up.”
There
is something very special about those morning and evening times with your
children. It used to be called
the children’s hour. Bedtime
is a wonderful opportunity to talk with your children about the events of
the day. We found that
they will often take this quiet time to share their thoughts or spiritual
concerns. In times of storm or
fear, it is a perfect time to pray and to share the promises of God's Word
with them.
Spurgeon
said: “I cannot tell you how much I owe to the custom on Sun. evenings
while we were yet children for Mother to stay at home with us.
And then we sat around the table and read verse after verse and she
explained the Scriptures to us. Then
came a mother’s prayer and some of the words of our mother’s prayer we
shall never forget even when our hair is gray.”
Psalm
4:8 — “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD,
only makest me dwell in safety.”
“When
thou risest up.”
Mornings
are a great time to encourage and teach our children. Start each day with
prayer.
Psalm
5:3 — “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning
will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”
How
we begin each morning can determine the course of the day for our children
and us. Pray on the
armor of God. It is not a
playground out there, but a battle ground for our children.
Psalm
143:8 — “Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning; for in
thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I
lift up my soul unto thee.”
D. TEACH
CONSPICUOUSLY
8
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall
be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them
upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
The
reference here is to Phylacteries
(Gr.,=safeguard),
or Tephillin (Aramaic,=attachment),
which are worn by Jews after the age of 13.
They refer to two small leather boxes which contain strips of
parchment inscribed with verses from the Scriptures — Exodus. 13:1-10;
13:11:16
; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21. One
box is fastened to the forehead and the other to the left arm; they are
intended to serve as a reminder of the constant presence of God and the
need to keep Him uppermost in one's thoughts and deeds, thereby
safeguarding the wearer against committing a sin. The
other visible instruction was the Mezuzah (Heb.: doorpost), a small case
placed on the doorposts of Jewish homes, as a constant reminder of God’s
presence. The words of the
Shema are written on a tiny scroll of parchment, along with the words of a
companion passion, Deuteronomy 11:13-21.
On the back of the scroll, a name of God is written.
The scroll is then rolled up and placed in the case, so that the
first letter of the Name is visible. The case and scroll are then nailed
or affixed to the right side doorpost on an angle.
PRINCIPLE FOUR:
FEAR THE LORD GREATLY
13 Thou shalt fear the
LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14 Ye shall not go after other
gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the LORD thy God is a
jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled
against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
After giving us so many things, God is
warning us against forgetting Him. It’s so easy, when we are blessed, to
adopt an arrogant spirit of indifference and independence with the
attitude of “Who needs God
any longer?”
“Fear
of God” does not mean being afraid in His presence.
It is a reverence for His holy name, a holy respect for His
sovereign will, holding Him in highest regard.
It is the ever-present realization that God is the Almighty, Holy
God. It is remembering that He
means what He says. We respect
Him too much to disregard His ways or disobey His will.
Such a holy reverence for God gives a calm assurance and quiet
confidence to a family! And
the longer such loyalty persists, the more the Lord honors it by bringing
stability to the home.
This “fear of God” must be instilled in the hearts and lives of our
children. One day they
will leave the shelter of your home and your watchful eye.
They will go into a world of “other
gods.” They may not be
as obvious as wood, stone, or metal, but they are there, nonetheless —
the gods of materialism, money, and meism….gods
of sensuality, immorality, and hedonism.
And we must not forget the gods of fame,
celebrity, popularity, and power.
The gods of mind-bending
drugs and alcohol are always there as well . . . to say nothing of the
gods of intellectualism, humanism,
false philosophies, and man-made religions.
COMMIT YOUR CHILDREN TO GOD AND TRUST HIM.
Your children cannot get away from
your prayers. No son is
too far from God, no daughter is too deep in sin for God to turn His ear
away from God-fearing praying parents.
“This
is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according
to His will, he hears us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we
ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him” (1 John
5:13,124).
God will hear a believing parent’s
prayer of intercession for a son or daughter just as He hears the
child’s petitions in behalf of a prodigal mother or a wayward father.
PSALM
78:5—“For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in
Israel
, which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known to their children:
6 That the generation to come
might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise
and declare them to their children:
7 That they might set their
hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
The story is told of a farmer who had
an only son whose conversion was the subject of daily prayer. Special
evangelistic meetings were scheduled at the church, but the farmer had not
yet finished the seeding of his land. Regardless, he invited his family to
go to the first meeting. "But, Dad," said the boy, "you
aren’t going to leave the field unseeded? It will never be in as good
form again this season." "The field will have to take its
chances," replied the father. "The meetings have first
place." The son was converted. Less than a year later he lay dying,
and as the father bent over him, the boy’s arms went around his neck,
and with shining face he drew him close. "Oh, Dad," he
whispered, "I am so glad you let the field wait."
Proverbs
24:3,4 “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is
established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and
pleasant riches.”
“The
House of the righteous shall stand” (Proverbs 12:7).
"Home
is where the heart is,"
Is what they always say,
And I am thankful for a home
To come to day by day;
But this old
world is not my home,
My heart is with the Lord,
For He's prepared a place for me —
He promised in His Word.
The
sanctuary we may find
Within our earthly home
Is just a small reflection
Of what is yet to come.
How grateful
we can be to God
For homes where He is head,
For only then is home a place
Where mouths and hearts are fed.
I thank the
Lord for showing us
Just what a home should be —
A place where we feel safe and warm,
A harbor in life's sea.
A place
where "Welcome" always stands,
No matter what you've done,
Where love, forgiveness, peace and hope
Are promised to each one.
A place
where someone that you love
Waits just for you to come,
With open arms and heartfelt hugs,
You know now that you're home.
How
wonderful a home can be,
A place of peace and love,
And yet the best is yet to come —
Our final home above.
Jesus has
the perfect home
Waiting just for me;
He's put my name upon the door
For all eternity.
His welcome
smile and open arms
Are promised to each one
Who puts his faith and trust in Him,
God's One and only Son.
Our Lord
waits on the doorstep
Of the best home there could be,
And when He calls His children home,
Praise God, He'll call on me!
—Wendy Greiner Lefko
© 1996Copyright ©1998
STRONG FAMILIES
Professor Nick Stinnett, chairman of
the Department of Human Development and the Family at the University of
Nebraska at Lincoln, launched a fascinating “family strengths research
project” a few years ago in Oklahoma while he was on the faculty of
Oklahoma State University. He
and his research team observed and interviewed strong families in the
United States
,
South America
,
Switzerland
,
Austria
,
Germany
, and
South Africa
. There was only one criterion
for being included in the sample of strong families: the families had to
rate themselves very high in marriage happiness and in their satisfaction
in parent-child relationships. And
it was not limited to Christian families.
All sorts of questions were asked of
these families, such as, “How do you deal with conflict?” and “Do
you experience power struggles?” and
“How do you communicate?” The
goal was to discover what makes families strong.
They found six main qualities in
strong families.
- Strong
families are committed to the family,
- Strong
families spend time together,
- Strong
families have good family communication,
- Strong
families express appreciation to each other,
- Strong
families have a spiritual commitment,
- Strong
families are able to solve problems in a crisis.
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