Teach (2,3) Your Children Well...

In Deuteronomy 4:9, it is written

"...do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." 

We'll run across this theme numerous times throughout the year (the best example will be on June 3rd), but whenever we complain about the state of affairs for religion these days, we need to consider just how that came about.

As a Trinity student, the first thing we did every Monday morning was take church and Sunday School attendance, which still happens today. Even at an early age (and I'm talking 2nd or 3rd Grade), I could almost do it for the teacher. In my mind, I would silently answer (we had to answer for both, so if we attended both church and Sunday School, we responded "Yes Yes" and so on). If I were to pull out my 8th Grade yearbook, I can easily tell you what the typical response was. I don't know how to break the bad news, but the best we could have had for church attendance was around 50-60%. The idea that church attendance was important was starting to fray even 40 years ago.

Certain teachers would immediately ask "Why" if the attendance answer was "No," and I was always intrigued by what novel answers I might hear (and usually disappointed--let's face it, all the good ones were used up within a couple of weeks). Think about it--why didn't a 10-year-old kid attend church? Because they felt like sleeping in? They had an early tee time? Late night on Saturday night? You already know the answer, so let me pile on with the obvious--BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS WERE TOO LAZY TO TAKE THEM. 

Luther's Small Catechism begins each section with a variant of the phrase "As the head of the family should teach...," clearly describing what the first and most important line of instruction is in imparting our Christian beliefs to our children. Pastors, teachers, DCEs and other lay leaders can and happily do assist, but to dump it all on them goes clearly against the will of the Lord. In today's reading, God unambiguously tells the people of Israel the importance of passing on the law, since he knew 3500 years prior to George Santayana stating it that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

This won't be the last time I write on this subject, and I know I'm preaching to the choir, but there is NOTHING more important than bringing up our children in the faith, and you know as well as I do that when we meet the Lord and he asks us how we followed the instruction in Deuteronomy 4:9, the correct answer WILL NOT be "Uh, I thought the pastor/teacher/Sunday School teacher/someone else would do that"--it's our responsibility, as well as our privilege.

Scott