Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell
their children, and their children another generation. Joel 1 v 3
As
parents it is our duty to tell our children the wonderful acts of power,
grace and mercy the Lord has done in our lives as it is theirs to tell their
children. We are to share it not only with our own biological offspring
but with all the young who we come in contact with in the course of our lives.
The purpose for telling the next generation is so that they too set their hope
on the Lord, not forget the works of God and keep His commandments that they
too should know the Lord and be blessed by Him.
We are to diligently teach the children, talk of it while we are sitting down
and lying down and when we rise again. It should be a constant
refrain in our lives so that they are trained in righteousness. It should
not breed a religious fervor or an attitude of self righteousness in
them. It should teach them to walk in humility and faith before the Lord
all the days of their lives. As it is written in scripture, “Teach a
child the way she should go and she will not forget it all her life.” We are
also to share our own unique testimonies of how we came to know and love the
Lord and our various struggles and experiences as well as victories in the
Lord.
Even if a person learns the Ten Commandments thoroughly and keeps it in letter
and spirit, it will preserve him or her from great troubles: it will keep him
from lying and deception, from covetousness and cheating, from violence and
oppression, from adultery and its consequences. The essence of all
the laws of all nations is contained therein. If a child is taught
to read and apply the sayings in the book of Proverbs, it will teach her how to
behave, how to relate to people, how to avoid arguments, how to succeed, how to
communicate. The book of Ecclesiastes teaches a person the vanity
of life and to remember the Lord in everything one does from the days of one’s
youth. The book of Psalms teaches a person how to be close and personal
with the Lord God, how to talk to Him when things are looking good and when they
are not, how to worship Him in one’s heart and with one’s
lips. Teaching the next generation the scriptures is the best and
only way of passing on our spiritual inheritance and divine wisdom.
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