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. Deut. 6: 4-9

The process of discipling our children is a lifestyle.  What does that lifestyle look like?

“Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Deut. 20: 16

Our charge as parents is to disciple our children, teaching them to obey all He has commanded. But it can feel kind of weird to be teaching someone to honor oneself!  Yet, as parents, it must be done.

How do we do this?

Moses was a man who felt inadequate for the task God was calling him to.  He had all kinds of questions and reservations about whether he was the man for the job of delivering Israel.

If being faced with the task of parenting doesn’t make you feel inadequate, I’m not sure what would!  The raising of children in the training and nurturance of the Lord is indeed a daunting task that God has given to parents.

Like Moses, we may have questions like:

“Who am I that I should be responsible for discipling these children?”

“Suppose they ask me questions that I don’t know the answer to?  Then what shall I tell them?”

“What if they rebel?”

“ I have so many flaws and weaknesses myself. I just don’t know that I’m up to the challenge.”

What assurances does God give parents? And what is the one thing we cannot do?

When our son Caleb was in kindergarten, he returned home from a birthday party with the treasured bag of “treats.” We put them on top of the refrigerator, so they would be out of everyone’s reach. Not long after, I ran into the hall when I heard sounds of distress. There was Caleb facedown on the floor, crying, and our oldest son, Jeff, then 7, jumping on his back. Before I could react, 3 year old Andrew was doing the same.

Absolutely livid, I herded the offenders into their bedroom and shut the door, intending to wait until I had cooled down before dispensing justice. At that point Caleb said, “Mommie, I need to think of something good to do to my brothers since they were just mean to me.” I was stunned.

As Jacob returns to the land of his father, he is anxious about how he will be received by his brother Esau. The last time they were together, Esau was in a murderous rage toward Jacob, who had tricked their father into giving the blessing that had been intended for Esau to Jacob.  So Jacob, fearing the worst, divides his family in two, so that if Esau attacks one part of his family, perhaps the other side will escape. And he sends large numbers of livestock ahead of him as gifts to Esau, hoping to placate him.  But he never imagines Esau’s actual response:

⁴ But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept...

⁸ Esau asked, “What do you mean by all these droves I met?”

“To find favor in your eyes, my lord,” he said.

⁹ But Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”

¹⁰ “No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably. (Gen. 3, NIV)

Isn’t that a beautiful thought: that in offering forgiveness to someone who has wronged us, we show the face of God to our brothers and sisters?  Forgiveness turns an enemy back into a brother.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Do your children see you living by faith?