Teaching

             These commandments that I give you today are to be on 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. (Deuteronomy  6:6-7)

 

A little over a week ago, I shared statistics about how much we remember of what is taught to us, and the top of the list was that we retain 90% of what we say and do. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense that we also supposedly retain 90% of what we teach. So when Moses called on the Israelites to teach their children the Law, it wasn’t just so the children would know the Law. God’s Word isn’t wasted.

The thing with teaching our kids things is that we know once is never enough. We repeat things. Then, especially until recently, another child was born and we started over, teaching the same things. And it’s not long after the last child is born that the first grandchild came along.

Yesterday, some shared the idea that if you really listen to someone for five minutes, you’ll hear what is really important to that person. If you spend time with your children, or with yourself, you’re going to teach your children and  yourself what is important. When we leave that up to ourselves, they (and we) are likely to be taught inconsistent and contradictory answers to the question of what’s important. If we teach what is important according to God’s Word, or even according to other worldviews, we’ll be sharing something that tends to fit together. But the problem with the other worldviews, as I’ve described recently, is that they are clearly man-made. It is only in the Bible that we find what sounds like a higher perspective.