The month of August is a great time to head out into the timber and check your Deer stand, shooting lanes, and game trails. On one particularly warm day my oldest son Nathan, youngest son Josiah, and myself decided we needed to head to grandpa’s farm in order to do just that! On the way there Josiah asked four or five times “Daddy, can we stop by grandpa’s apple tree?” I guess you can’t check your stand without a few apples to munch along the way.

As we made our way across the field I was in teaching mode. I wanted the boys to notice everything; the direction of the wind, the sounds we could hear, any trails, and any wildlife we could spot on the way in. As we made our way down the hill and across a little hay-field Nathan said, “Dad. Look at all those geese!” I looked up at the sky just in time to see what Nathan was now pointing at. I said, “Wow, there sure are a lot of ‘em up there. But I don’t think they’re geese.” Nathan asked, “What are they?” and I responded, “I don’t know.” At this point Josiah who was working his way through his third apple and had not even raised his head to look up at the sky said, “They’re birds.”

Sometimes the simplicity and complexity of children is just the right dose of reality! Thinking about that day still brings a smile to my face. We knew they were not geese and thanks to Josiah we knew for certain that they were absolutely birds. What a joy and great blessing our children really are to us!

In a study conducted several years ago, sociologists Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck of Harvard University tried to identify the crucial factors in Juvenile Delinquency. They developed a test by which they could predict the future delinquency of children five or six-years-old. Their follow-up tests, four years later, proved to be ninety percent accurate. They determined that the four necessary factors to prevent delinquency are:

1. The Father’s Discipline: Discipline must be firm, fair, and consistent.
2. The Mother’s Supervision: A mother must know where her children are and what they’re doing at all times, and be with them as much as possible.
3. The Father and Mother’s Affection: Children need to see love demonstrated between the father and mother, and have it physically demonstrated to them.
4. The Family’s Cohesiveness: The family must spend time together.

Deuteronomy 6:7-9 “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Notice that this practice is an imperative: YOU SHALL TEACH THEM. Second, the process is simple: TALK. Not preach, scold, cajole, pound it into them, or dump on them. This is to be a natural a part of our daily life, natural and unforced, it is to just flow into every part of life. The key to this is really whether or not you can see God in every part of life. If you do, so will your children. If God stays at church or when you prepare a lecture, they will compartmentalize Him right out of their social life, private life, sports life, dressing life, recreation life and every other part of their lives. As one great old saint said, ‘There’s no difference between the sacred in the secular’. That’s basically what Moses is saying: Just let God flow into all of life.

Are you praying for your children? Are you teaching them the Word of God? Do you pray with your children? Do you model good choices? How much time and attention do you give to your children?

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  3 John 1:4

Clegguart Mitchell