Our Legacy

As Christian parents, we all want our children to grow up to be fellow Christians. We want them to have Christian beliefs and to live lives devoted to Jesus. The Bible encourages parents with:

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

We don’t just get Christian children because we claim to be Christians. We get Christian children by being intentional in our discipleship of our children and by the grace of God. Too many parents act like taking their kids to church most Sundays is enough. In our ungodly culture, that is definitely not the case.

A Generation That Doesn’t Know God

In the Old Testament we see the need to be intentional in teaching and training our kids and sharing all that God has done for us.

Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord ... (Judges 2:8-11a) {emphasis mine}

When the generation of Joshua died, those left behind did not know God nor His great works. What did Joshua’s generation experience? They experienced the miraculous plagues in Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. They heard God speak the law at Mt Sinai. They saw God provide manna and quail for them to eat. They saw God prevent their clothes and shoes from wearing out over 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. They saw God’s strength as He led them to conquer Canaan and saw the huge, protective walls of Jericho fall down.

They also saw God’s judgment on Pharaoh when he lost his firstborn. They saw Miriam given leprosy for presuming to take Moses’s roll for herself. They saw Korah and his followers swallowed by the earth for trying to approach God. They saw Aaron’s sons, Nahab and Abihu, struck down for offering strange fire.

Why did they not tell stories of what they had seen to their children? Why didn’t they share God’s power, God’s holiness, and God’s judgment with their children? How did these kids not know what God had done for Israel? Why weren’t the Israelites more excited about what God did for them?

The consequence of complacency and assuming the younger generations “just knew” were catastrophic.

The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed. (Judges 2:14-15) {emphasis mine}

The parents and grandparents failure to teach and disciple the younger generations led to their downfall.

Building Up the Next Generation

God did not mean it to be this way. He had given them commands to share with the younger generations.

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)

If we are doing our job and being good parents, we will be constantly discipling our kids, not just sending them to church or Sunday school. We should already be living lives honoring to God. We should already be sharing the Gospel with others. Some parents are so busy with life and entertainment, that they never disciple their kids. There are also some parents that are so busy ministering to others that they don’t make time to minister to their own children and grandchildren. Whatever the case, we need to make sure our kids know God and all He has done throughout history and in our own lives.

When God does something in your life, you need to have something to help you remember what God has done and have something that your kids and grandkids see and ask about.

Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, “Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.’ ” ... Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4:1-3, 6-7) {emphasis mine}

You could setup a monument like the Israelites. You could have a photo on the wall. You could have a journal or other form of written record. Anything that can be seen as a reminder is useful so we don’t get so caught up with life that we forget what God has done for us.

Practical Solutions

It is useful looking back and seeing what God told the Israelites to do and what they did wrong. We can learn a lot from them, but life today is different. We are busier, but don’t live such difficult lives. We have so many resources, but sometimes there are so many that it can be overwhelming.

Taught:

First of all, we need to focus on teaching and discipling the younger generations, especially our kids and grand kids. Yes, taking them to church, Sunday school, and youth group are a good start, but we need to personally teach our kids. (I do recommend the AWANA program if one is around you. Once a kid has gone through the whole program they will have memorized over 1,000 verses and read the whole Bible.)

We need to teach them about God and we need to teach them to pray and study God’s word. We need to not be afraid of questions. Any questions, to which you don’t have the answer, is just an opportunity to learn with our kids and to teach them different ways to find answers.

Regularly spending time praying and studying God’s word should be part of the plan, but you need to schedule it. For some, this might be first thing in the morning. For others, right before bedtime might work better. Each family can decide what works best for them.

Family Bible study can look lots of different ways. You can do it in the morning or in the evening. You can just read through the Bible or you can get a Bible Study or Devotion book to go through. I have a special needs son who is doing the AWANA program. The Trek (Jr. high) and Journey (high school) require a lot of work (Bible reading, Bible study, & verse memorization), so recently we do them together as a family as our nightly devotion.

We pray at meals and at bedtime. We also include our sons in prayers when we receive other prayer requests.

The one thing to keep in mind is the old adage about things being “caught rather than taught.”

Caught:

One of the biggest parts of teaching your kids about Jesus and the Bible is being a good example. Do you spend your time reading the Bible and Bible commentaries or watching sports & movies? When you are enjoying entertainment, do you react in a godly manner to ungodly scenes or do you cheer on actions contrary to God’s word? Do you put sports and entertainment above church attendance? If so, expect your kids to do so even more. Do you spend most of your time on your phone or computer or do you put your kid’s above clicks and likes? Young kids really want their parent’s attention. If they don’t get it, they will quickly divert their attention elsewhere and more often than not, you won’t like what their attention diverts to.

Are you loving to others or do you often get angry at others? Your kids will do the same. Do you live a godly life or do you look like the rest of the ungodly culture? Your kids are watching and learning.

In today’s evil culture, you have to choose to be very intentional training your kids to know and love God. You have to choose to live a life honoring to God. A hundred years ago, when the US was a Christian nation, you might’ve been able to get away with being less intentional (although intentional godliness and discipleship is always best), but in today’s culture, if you aren’t training your kid, others are, and they are probably training them in evil and ungodliness.

I am writing this article shortly after the shooting of Charlie Kirk. We are seeing many people in positions of authority, and especially teachers and professors, who are cheering a godly man being gunned down. This strongly implies what they are teaching their students. This should terrify all parents.

It has been very convenient to send our kids off to government schools while we enjoy our careers and off-load our God given responsibility for our children. It is nice to have the amenities1 we get from a two income home, but our children’s life and well-being are at stake. I’d like to call all Christian parents to pull their kids out of these ungodly indoctrination centers and to homeschool their children.

We are losing the younger generations to perversion and evil. We must protect our kids.

As someone who has homeschooled both of my kids (although not from the beginning), I can honestly say it is one of the best things I have ever done. My kids have thrived. They are becoming all that they can be. They are becoming secure in their beliefs, so they aren’t led astray by peer-pressure and lies. We are closer as a family because of the quality time we spend together. My sons are adults now and thriving. (Although I am still homeschooling my son with Down Syndrome to give him the best chance at a normal life.)

Is homeschooling easy? No, not really. Is it worth it? Absolutely! It is one of the best things I’ve done in my life. It works well if your kid is typical. It works well if your kid is gifted (like my eldest). It works well if your kid is special needs (like my youngest). There are so many resources available to help you. There are resources for every learning style and learning level.

Take your responsibility as parents seriously.

May the God of heaven multiply your impact and your family. May you raise up your children in the way they should go and may they never depart from it. May God give you the strength and wisdom to do what is best for your children and to live a life honoring to God and that is a godly example to your children.

Trust Jesus

All verses are NASB unless otherwise noted.

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