If parents teach children truth with their mouths, without setting the example of righteousness, devotion, wisdom and courage, then children will learn to scorn, disregard or abuse the truth. They will end up as rebels (rejecting the truth), nominal Christians (superficially recognizing the truth, but living like the world) or legalists (treating the truth as a sterile set of rules by which to pass judgment on others).
Wisdom is the ability to skillfully apply truth to the situations of daily life. There is one book of Scripture written for a child by his parent, specifically designed to help him make wise and character-building decisions. That book is Proverbs. The study, discussion and application of Proverbs should be a central part of training our children. It is filled with hundreds of practical moral guidelines for living life. It teaches not only what is right and wrong, but shows that what is right is also smart, and what is wrong is also stupid. This provides a double motivation for our children—and their parents—to live righteously.
At the dinner table, read a verse or passage in Proverbs focusing on a central truth. Then ask your children to try to put it in their own words, and come up with a specific application or illustration of it. Discover what it means as a family. Then ask each person to actually apply this truth within the next 24 hours and report back to the family what he or she did. Their discernment and skill in application will dramatically develop with practice—as will their love for the truth they are living, and the Lord they are serving.
Run the race. Don’t drop the baton. Pass it on with care and enthusiasm to your children and grandchildren. So that at the end of the course, at the beginning of the wonderful new life in the presence of God, we—and they—will hear Him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servants.”
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give 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 your get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)
