Deuteronomy 6:5 contains what Jesus called the greatest commandment—‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,’ (NIV).  This verse is not just the greatest commandment; it is the beginning of a framework.  In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 we find a blueprint for parents to disciple their own children.  We see God’s plan for reproducing faith, values and lifestyle in the next generation.

It begins with that greatest commandment.  Before He ever mentions parents or children, God commands us to love Him with everything we are.  This means that before we can teach our children to love God, we ourselves must love Him.  That, I believe, is because love is caught not taught.

Think about it.  If I raise my kids to love God, but I don’t love Him, what message do they hear?  Perhaps they hear the message that loving God is for others, not me.  Or, maybe I’m saying that loving God is for children, but not adults.  Or, perhaps I’m just saying that I don’t believe loving God is as important as I say it is.  Whatever message they receive, it is not going to instill a love for God in them.

The best illustration of this is parents who send their kids to church or Sunday school.  Often they say, “I want my kids to learn morals,” or, “They need to learn about God.”  Yet the child sees mom or dad staying home.  No matter how you cut it, that child is learning that mom and dad don’t really believe all this Jesus stuff.  And if mom and dad don’t, then why should they?

So, discipling my children begins with being who I want them to become.  If I want my children to be vibrant, growing followers of Christ, then I need to prioritize that in my own life.  Anything less will undermine their spiritual development.

Deuteronomy 6 goes on to say we are to impress God’s commandment upon our children when we are at home, on the road, lying down or getting up.  They are to be the very center of our family life.  As I’m setting an example, I also need to be my kid’s primary teacher.  In most churches today we get this horribly wrong.

In most churches the parents aren’t the primary teacher’s of children.  My child has one teacher in Sunday school, another at VBS.  When they become a teen they have another—the youth Pastor.  Yet, at no point am I held accountable for teaching my kids.  Whatever my kids know about Christ, Scripture, Salvation or anything else has come from someone other than mom and dad.  Now, all those teachers have their place.  However, Deuteronomy 6 places the primary teaching responsibility upon mom and dad.

Thus, mom and dad should be teaching their children what they have and are learning.  From the very basics to whatever level of understanding mom and dad achieve, they should pass along that knowledge to their children.  And this isn’t just an information download.  It must be a part of the everyday life of the family.

The picture, again, is that we’re impressing God’s Word upon our kids as we go along the road, sit at home, lie down and get up.  That sounds an awful lot like making God’s word central to everything we do.  So, I encourage parents to have a regular family devotion, family worship.  I encourage parents to talk about Sunday school lessons, Sermons and such with their children.  In our church we even provide weekly sermon discussion guides for families.

That is Deuteronomy’s simple guide for raising our kids.  Be what we want them to become and be their primary teachers.  Now, this isn’t easy.  It requires a skill many parents lack, and a huge time commitment.  Skill wise, anyone can learn.  The church is the place where parents should be learning how to disciple their children.  Time wise, only the parents can make the choice.  The simple fact is we all have time to do this, but we must give up other things.  Moms and Dads need to spend as much time with their kids as possible.  Quality time won’t cut it all discipleship—especially parenting—takes huge quantities of time.

If you’re a parent, I hope you’ll take God call seriously and disciple your children.  In the future I’ll post how I handle family devotions and worship, and how we try to include Christ in everything our family does.