Like any Christian, my
desire was teaching my children Biblical truths and instilling in them a love
for my heavenly Father. I wanted to confidently fulfill my responsibilities and
to live out Deuteronomy 4:9 “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy
soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and
lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy
sons, and thy sons' sons;”
I pictured the scene in my mind: A family gathered in a living room, the morning sun pouring in.
A sense of peace fills the room as a confident and prepared father leads his
family in learning from the Word of God. His wife smiles—she is content,
rested, and supportive. The children are not just attentive, but fascinated
with their father’s instruction. Unity abounds and time stands still as
children ask questions and everyone enjoys their time so much that they forget
all about moving on to the rest of the day.
In spite of my high hopes, each time I resolved to live my desires
out, I became besieged with interruptions, complications, and
deteriorating enthusiasm. Too often pressing business needs, home
repairs, or other issues sabotaged my good intentions.
Can you relate to my
continual frustration? Small children, business needs, ministry and church
involvement, and household chores. I kept hoping that as soon as we worked
through the current big project, the next looming event, or the latest
obstacle, I would get into the habit of actively teaching my children and
loving my wife as I dreamed of doing.
These are all reasons for my own failure in this area, but upon
examining my heart closely, I found that the real reason I couldn’t live out
what I knew was right was, because I didn’t take God’s commands to
fathers seriously. Taking leadership and demonstrating sacrificial
love were really good ideas, something that I knew should do. However, I
obviously didn’t really believe that God thought training my kids in His Word
was essential to their daily lives, because I wasn’t doing it. The smaller
projects and responsibilities that could have been put off somehow always took
precedence over what I knew in my heart was my responsibility.
We
have found that a key to making these goals work out practically is to have enough structure to make our time as a family predictable and
feasible, while staying flexible for days when we aren’t able
to meet together. When we can’t spend time together in the morning, I try to
take an opportunity later in the evening.
I know that our daily time, roughly
30 minutes to an hour in length, is going to influence future generations. This
is time in which I am passing on my love for God’s Word. It is time in which we
seek God as a family for things that concern us. It is time to build bonds and
create memories that will strengthen each one of our children for the rest of
their lives.
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