It's Your Job

Read: Deuteronomy 6
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 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 you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

I used to get so angry at my children—not when they willfully disobeyed and had to be punished, but when they took up my time over and over again with the same things. Things like not picking up their toys, storing food on the floor of their room so the dog could get it, leaving dishes in the living room, not closing juice bottles, leaving dirty clothes all over. In other words, just acting like the immature human beings they are. As I related my frustration to a friend, she was appalled at my attitude. I could tell she wanted to rake me over the coals, but in her wisdom all she said was exactly what I needed to hear: “Get over it. Until they’ve moved out, they’re the primary job that God has given you.”

I thought about the things that I let get to me, and realized they were miniscule in comparison with what really mattered. Certainly we are to teach our children responsibility and work ethic. But far superseding this is the need for us to teach them about God’s love for us and his desire for us to be like Him. When you see the beauty of creation, talk about God’s power. As you watch TV together bring up God’s principles that you see being followed or violated. When you are wrong (like showing anger incorrectly), admit it, ask their forgiveness, and solicit suggestions from them on godly ways you could have handled it. Pray with them. Read the Bible with them. And then after they leave home, continue to pray for them and be ready to give biblical advice when asked. Remember, they’re your primary job.