Friday, March 23, 2012

Love the Lord - "the" Key for Child Education (Deuteronomy 11:1)

A lot has been said about the child education. One suggestion came out, that is to say, "Help kids memorize 300 key Bible verses. That is it."

Is that it? Mayby not for children learn not just from what the parents ask them to do or not to do, but also from what the parents themselves actually do or do not do.

In Deuteronomy 11 Moses says in effect, "For child education, parents ought to love the Lord. That is it!" Moses' logic is this:

(1) You guys witnessed the Lord performing all sorts of miracles.

(2) But the the emerging generation did not. So you cannot expect them to obey the Lord.

(3) BUT, if you love the Lord and obey Him, they will also love the Lord and obey Him.

A question arises though. In what respect is the parents' loving the Lord as good as (if not better than) the children witnessing miracles? Moses' knkowlege of the Lord answers the question. Through serving the Lord for 120 years, Moses experienced firsthand that nothing is impossible with the Lord. Love desires to be at one with the one he or she chooses to love. Thus, when one loves the Lord, he literally becomes the Lord's alter-ego. As the parents love the Lord then they invite to the sphere of their children not just resources (such as miracles wonders and signs that are manifested in a physical world) but also the source itself. So which one would you rather choose - (1) a bucketfull of fish each and every day or (2) the one who owns the Pacific Ocean which contains all sorts of fish, so you could carry the source all the time (no matter where you go)? The answer is obvous.

So you do not need to even bother to demand your children to memorize three hundred Bible verses. As far as the do's and don'ts (or "how-to's") on child-education are concerned, Moses' is superior to the other. It is 300 times better than the 300 Bible verses memorization idea. [But still I think it is a great idea to help children memorize God's words, for with prayer, the word of the Lord is a primary means of grace.]

What do you think?  

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