Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 11:18-19)
Parents have an enormous responsibility of passing their faith on to their children. I know of some parents who have abdicated that responsibility because they believe their children should figure faith out for themselves, but such a mindset isn’t found anywhere in the pages of the Bible.
After passing on instructions on how to live and reminding the Israelites of the good that comes with obedience and the bad that comes with disobedience, Moses then took a moment to cast a vision for good parenting. Good parents both know God’s principles (they’re fixed in the mind) and obey them (they’re fixed in the heart). Additionally, they teach those principles to their children whenever the opportunity arises.
Passing your faith onto your children is not indoctrination; it’s your responsibility as a parent.
Think about it like this: if you knew the secret to living life to the fullest, would you tell your kids to hunt for it on their own and hope that they might get lucky and find it? Of course not! You’d want them to know every aspect of the secret. You would tell them over and over again so they would never forget.
If we truly believe it, isn’t the secret of living life to the fullest knowing God and living to please Him? As a parent, I need to introduce my children to the Lord and teach them to follow His ways so they can know Him intimately themselves and experience the blessed life that He wants to give them.
Father, help me not to be timid when it comes to introducing my daughter to You. Capture her heart, and help her to know You. Let my faith be such a part of my life that it is contagious – so she sees it and is inspired to follow You, too. Let her live by Your ways and so live by Your blessings.
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