Passionate Homemaking

Deuteron­omy 6:6-9
“These words, which I am com­mand­ing you today, shall be on your heart; and 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.”

Why is it so impor­tant to train our chil­dren to think bib­li­cally? Sally Clark­son in chap­ter 6 of The Mis­sion of Moth­er­hood responds by recit­ing Proverbs 23:7, that as a person “thinks within him­self, so is he (NASB).” Our children’s thought processes and beliefs will deter­mine, as they grow and mature, what kind of people they will be. “What we think about God is the most impor­tant thing about us” as A.W. Tozer so pro­foundly pointed out. How we view and com­pre­hend God will not only affect our beliefs, but also our deci­sion making process, our pur­pose, and our behav­ior. There­fore, ever more reason for us to heed the impor­tant call to train up our chil­dren in bib­li­cal lit­er­acy, moral­ity, laws, the­ol­ogy, wisdom, and faith, which she expands upon in detail through­out the remain­der of this chapter.

How can we walk this out?

Bib­li­cal Lit­er­acy - Read the Word together! Sally highly rec­om­mends story telling from the Bible. Asking ques­tions to build inter­est, read­ing, talk­ing, and pray­ing through each story. One resources she uses is Sto­ries that Jesus Told by Patri­cia St. John.

Law & Morality

Study and mem­o­rize the Ten Com­mand­ments. Chil­dren must under­stand that there is a right and wrong, even when it may require repeated expo­sure to the truth. It also requires learn­ing and under­stand­ing the con­se­quences of sin, in addi­tion to com­pre­hend­ing the truth of God’s love and forgiveness.

A great resource for teach­ing the Ten Com­mand­ments is Hand Com­mands by Ann Duna­gan. Great for young to old with just a simple way of remem­ber­ing and mem­o­riz­ing them with your fingers!

The­ol­ogy

We must study the char­ac­ter and attrib­utes of God together in order that our chil­dren might know and under­stand the mean­ing and pur­pose behind God’s com­mands. “My chil­dren long to give their hearts not to a list of rules but to a living, loving, vibrant Person - a God who is truly worthy of praise and their life’s devo­tion. They will encounter that God in the pages of Scrip­ture, but they will come to know him even more inti­mately in the lives of those who love him.”

Bible Doc­trine by Wayne Grudem are highly rec­om­mended for train­ing in the­ol­ogy. We stud­ied these together as a family and they were excel­lent at build­ing a solid foundation.

For younger folks, Big Truths for Little Kids by Susan Hunt comes highly rec­om­mended to me as well as Lead­ing Little Ones to God by Marian Schooland.

Wisdom

Study the book of Proverbs! “God desires us to be more than aca­d­e­mic the­olo­gians who can think great thoughts about him. He desires to make his wisdom prin­ci­ples a fun­da­men­tal part of our think­ing so we can apply them to our lives in a real­is­tic way. As we teach our chil­dren to act wisely and think about the bib­li­cal approach to living, we help them develop the char­ac­ter and integrity that will serve asa foun­da­tion for their decisions.” I can recall read­ing the book of Proverbs repeat­edly grow­ing up. My par­ents saw the value of not only teach­ing the knowl­edge of God but how to prac­ti­cally live out an obe­di­ence to Christ Jesus. We would take turns read­ing each verses and share a com­ment. IT was so valuable!

For fur­ther excel­lent read­ing on prac­ti­cally train­ing our chil­dren in these areas, please read Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham, Jr. It is a fab­u­lous and inspir­ing read!

Sally ends with this quote: “The truth of God’s Word - about God’s real­ity, about wisdom, about faith - is to be spoken of con­stantly in our homes. Talk­ing, talk­ing, talk­ing to our chil­dren all the time about everything…This con­stant talk­ing and instruct­ing is what was mod­eled by Jesus while he lived with his dis­ci­ples and pre­pared them to be lead­ers of the faith when he went to heaven. It is sig­nif­i­cant to me that, in record­ing the last evening he spent with Jesus, John took four chap­ters to record all that Jesus said to them. He talked and talked and talked to them.”

What did you glean from this chap­ter? I would love to hear of fur­ther resource rec­om­men­da­tions as well for train­ing our chil­dren to think bib­li­cally? What has worked for you?