Teach them young!

My older daughter who will be turning 6 tomorrow just amazes me. Her natural inquisitiveness and the amount of information she soaks in from the environment around her is just astounding. The questions she throws at me often leave me puzzled. Despite that fact that I wish she’d just go to bed every night without asking for a story, I end up telling her bedtimes stories -sometimes from the Bible. Recently at bedtime, I chose to teach her the spiritual armour of God and I think she understood. Well, sort of.

In The Pilgrim's Progress, Christian makes a stop at Palace Beautiful where he is supplied with a full suit of armour to protect him and prepare him for battle with Apollyon on his journey to the Celestial City.His body armour represents the Armour of God.

The Armour of God that contains the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit is essential for fighting the spiritual battles that we confront every day in our lives. And it's just as important that we arm our children and grandchildren with the same protection.

Growing up, my mother made us memorize Scripture every weekend and every advice she gave us would have some Bible verse in it. Consequently, there were so many verses that were just etched in our memory without us having to make any effort to memorize. We also had a daily devotional book (‘God & Me ‘by Scripture Union) packed with fun-activities from the Bible that we were supposed to work on every day. This foundation helped us look at the world from a Biblical perspective.

As parents, we‘ve been entrusted with the great responsibility of equipping our children with the tools, resources and skills they need to find the answers to any question they seek. Foundational questions on life and spirituality cannot be answered apart from the Word of God. With Bible illiteracy skyrocketing, we are commanded to hide God's Word in our hearts. We are also commanded to teach them to our children when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up (Deuteronomy 6:7). A child can begin memorizing Scripture as soon as he can talk. Teaching our children scripture doesn’t have to be hard. Singing is probably one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to memorize scripture. Playtimes and bedtimes for memorizing Scripture have always worked for me.

With childhood and teen years overflowing with temptations and peer pressure to walk away from the truth, Scripture will not only encourage, discipline and nurture our kids, but also prepare them for the onslaught of Satan as they are headed into the world.Let's also remember that our responsibility lies not in forcing our children into becoming Christians, but rather instructing them in the way of the Lord and demonstrating a Christian life at home. And then we can confidently walk in the assurance that Proverbs 22:6 provides: "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."