Impress Them on Your Children

Sometimes I feel that being a mother automatically enters you and your child(ren) into a competition of sorts. It seems to never fail that at some point in conversations with other mothers it turns into: my son is sleeping through the night...at 3 weeks old; my daughter is potty trained...she's not even 2; my son can say and write his ABC's... he's 4 months! I know that a lot of it is just being a proud momma excited about the new milestones, but I feel like so much emphasis is placed on how early we can get our kids to do things such as learning their ABC's, numbers, reading and writing, etc. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad thing, but for me, I decided it's not at the top of my list.

Our pastor has been doing a sermon series about family. Last Sunday, his sermon was based on Deuteronomy 6. Verses 4-9 says this: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give to you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."

I want to impress God's word onto my children. I want them to learn the character of Christ. I want them to know Him personally and trust in His death and resurrection. This is what I want at the top of my list for my children.

I was challenged on Sunday. Am I really doing this. Is praying at meals/ before bed, watching a few episodes of Veggie Tales, and reading some Bible stories with my children enough? Maybe. But I really felt lead this week to be more intentional about teaching God's word to Stella and Sam. The teacher and creative side of me decided that I would start being intentional by picking a Bible story and memory verse to learn for one week and then do an activity (craft, song, etc.) that ties into the lesson. I found a lot of great ideas at www.dltk-kids.com!

This week we have been reading Genesis 1- the story of creation. The kids made rice crispy treats shaped like the earth. This was to help them with their memory verse: God said, "I made the earth." Isaiah 45:12.



Even more than being intentional about setting time aside in our day to read God's word, I need to make sure that I am modeling for my children what it looks like to be an ambassador of Christ. After all, things are caught. Not taught.