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Copyright - American Tract Society, Garland TX. [used by permission]

One of the alarming trends in America today is the disappearance of the distinctively Christian home - a home where Christ rules and where Christian truth permeates every area of human experience.

One reason for this decline is that Christian parents are not fulfilling their responsibilities. One mother told her minister, "Pastor, I want you to know that every time the doors of this church open, my children will be here." The pastor was impressed with this remark until he realized the true significance of it.

Like this mother, many parents take their children to some church, deposit them there, and say, in effect, "Here, you lead my child to Christ. You teach him the Word of God." But parents must remember that no other institution can ever become a substitute for the Christian home.

In grooming a new generation for entrance into the Promised Land, Moses pointed out the importance of the home in teaching God's people obedience:

Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 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. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

GOD'S TRUTH - CENTRAL IN PARENTS' LIVES

Moses reminded the new generation of Israelites that God had revealed Himself to them. "Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord" (v. 4). And that revelation demands a response. The response which God requires is love: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (v. 5). Love is a response of the whole human personality-the mind, the will, and the emotions.

Moses also referred to the concept that relationship always determines reality. He said, "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart" (v. 6). The Word of God was to hold such a prominent position in every person's life that it would produce a proper relationship between him and his God. In effect, he was saying, "Parents, if you do not have a dynamic relationship with the living Lord, then you have nothing to communicate to your children."

After a session at a Bible conference, the speaker was talking to several people who had come to ask him questions. One woman forced her way to the front and tried several times to interrupt his conversation. Finally, he asked what her question was.

'What can you tell me that would help me make my children learn to be more patient?" she asked.

The answer is disgustingly simple. Parents cannot offer their children reality in life if they do not possess that reality.

As a parent with small children, I remember crying out, 'Lord, change my children," only to realize that I should be praying, 'Lord, change my children's father." To the extent that the Spirit of God has worked in my life, I have seen the most dramatic changes in the lives of my children.

Every parent should ask himself, "What is there in my life that I cannot explain on any other basis than the supernatural?" The answer to this question is positive proof that God is at work in his life. A Christian parent is not perfect, but should be progressing, growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord. That relationship will provide something worthwhile to pass on to children.

GOD'S TRUTH-CENTRAL IN THE HOME

Moses listed two ways that Christian parents are to communicate truth to their children. The first means is teaching: "Thou shalt teach them [these words that are upon your heart] diligently unto your children" (v. 7). This is formal, planned instruction.

Moses assumed that parents could clearly explain God's truth to their children. Unfortunately, many Christian parents have attended church for years, yet they find it difficult to explain biblical truth to their children. Parents need to seize every opportunity to learn God's Word, so they can fulfill their responsibility of teaching their children God's truth.

The second means of communicating God's truth to children is talking: "Thou ... shalt talk of them [God's words]" (v. 7). This method includes all kinds of informal, spontaneous instruction which occurs during many experiences in family life. The spiritually sensitive parent will realize that every day God gives him many choice opportunities to relate the truth of God's Word to the lives and experience of his children.

One night while my boys and I were camping, eight inches of rain fell in three hours. We were swept down the flooding creek quite some distance. We escaped with our lives, but our camping gear was lost. My most vivid memory of that experience is drying ourselves out by the fire under a shelter that we built and talking about the protective hand of the Lord. Such occasions teach a child that the Christian life is not a bunch of theory-he learns that it is reality.

In Deuteronomy 6:8, 9 Moses refers to another important task of parents-helping their children form the habit of applying God's truth to every area of life. The Word of God was to be placed on the hand to symbolize its control over everything a person does, on frontlet bands between the eyes to symbolize its control over his thoughts, on the doorposts of Ms house to represent its effect on the most intimate areas of his experience, and on the gate which was where business was transacted and the courts of justice met. Only the Word of God is so pervasive that it can influence every thought and every action from the most intimate to the most public.

The only guarantee that one's children will live according to God's truth in the future is to teach them that truth now. Parents can start that training by first allowing God's truth to be centered in their own lives. Their prayer should be, 'Lord, I love You, and I want my whole life to reflect Your reality." As a result, that reality will spill over into the lives of their children, creating a distinctively Christian home.

It's not too late to start being all that God wants you to be ... there's no substitute for Christian parents!

Dr. Howard G. Hendricks