We are probably familiar with Proverbs 6:7
“Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
and Deut. 6:7
“You shall teach them, (God’s commands), 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.”
But what do these verses mean?
Do we read the Bible to our children 4 hours a day and then talk about the verses the next 12 hours?
What does ‘Train up’ mean?
How do we talk about God’s word?
I realize that it varies for every family, but as a mom of 4 young sons, and a new Christian raised in a non Christian home, I felt overwhelmed and frustrated by those verses.
After prayer and lots of discussions with other moms, I came up with a plan.
It worked so well for me, I thought I’d share it with you.
What do I mean that ‘it worked?’
It means that looking back, I probably wouldn’t change the way that I approached the biblical training of my children.
Here is what I did:
Because I know that I am a very imperfect role model, I incorporated the help of others.
-I found role models for my children. I enrolled all 8 of my children in an AWANA program offered in a local church. They attended the weekly classes from the age of 5 – 11. The teachers encouraged them to memorize 100’s of Bible verses, and affirmed them in their Christian walk.
-I helped them understand that they have a destiny to fulfill for Jesus that no one else can fulfill. They were created for a purpose. I read many, many autobiographies and biographies of ‘famous’ Christians aloud to the children. One of my favorite books is called Courageous Christians by Joyce Brown. I explained that each of the people that we were reading about were ‘normal’ little boys and girls just like them, who were following God’s plans for their lives.
-We memorized Bible verses every Monday as a family, and talked about them every day that week at lunchtime.
-I used devotionals each night before bedtime, to end the day talking about God, and His love for us.
-We watched Christian DVDs and listened to Your Story Hour CDs which chronicle the lives of ‘famous’ Christians.
-I picked 11 godly characteristics to concentrate on while raising up my children. we talked about 1 characteristic a week, and repeated them over and over.
I’ll share the 11 godly characteristics, and how I incorporated each one into our lives in posts over the next 5 weeks!
I’m also scoping about them on Periscope under BonniG.
If you are looking for a good, inspirational devotional for active young children, I published one that contains 52 of our favorite stories that I personally wrote, to give my children object lessons to apply God’s word to their lives. It’s called Timely Truths for Toddlers to Tweens. You can find it here.
My next post will include ways to incorporate the godly characteristic of Hospitality into our daily lives.
