Today we are happy to welcome Tara McClenahan to At the Well.
4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (New American Standard Bible)
Whew! This is quite a huge command from God, isn’t it? If you are like me, it leaves you thinking, “Um, yes! I WANT to do that! But, I’m not sure HOW to do that!”
Merriam-Webster defines “diligently” as “characterized by steady, earnest and energetic effort; painstaking, the act of taking pains with something.” Wow! Are YOU doing this? I know I wasn’t! At least not the steady part and definitely not the energetic part! I think I would characterize my nurturing of my son’s spiritual development somewhere between “flying by the seat of my pants” and “praying I could fit it all in somewhere before he graduates.” Sound familiar?
One day, quite out of the blue, I looked around and realized how much time had passed since I held my newborn son. Then I realized something else even more sobering than that: I wasn’t doing much to make sure he really knew and understood who God is, why God created him and why we are called to honor and serve Him. Sure, we prayed over our meals and at bedtime, but I had never explained to him why we did that. Neither had I explained to him why we went to church each week or why Mommy reads her Bible to him at night. It hadn’t occurred to me to make known to him what is so real to me. These were just the things we did. I simply didn’t think about giving him the “why.” Apparently, I was operating under the assumption that he would pick it up along the way. I felt so foolishly blind and like such a failure! That’s when I knew I had to become a missionary in my own home.
Today, I am passionate about not letting my son’s spiritual development occur by osmosis, by chance or hoping that he will pick it up along the way. My heart’s desire is to make sure that I don’t look back years from now with regret that I didn’t intentionally make the time to teach my son what is really important. I don’t want the most important part of his life, his spiritual development, to have a big hole in it because I let the daily grind distract me. I don’t want to use the craziness of life and my fleshly nature as excuses to not be a Godly example. He needs to see what being a true child of God looks like including all the highs and lows – from obedience and failures to repentance and forgiveness. Most importantly though, I want him to see and come to know God and all that He is.
Do you feel the same way about your children?
In order to pass on a spiritual legacy to our children, we need to have a spiritual legacy to pass on. This isn’t to say that we pass on our salvation, as that cannot be done. This simply means you and I need salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. A spiritual legacy also includes a desire to know God and His Word, a desire to live for Him and His glory, and a desire to know how that looks in our everyday lives.
A legacy isn’t just something that our children receive once we are gone from this earth. It is also something they acquire every day. What we teach, what we say, how we act (gulp!), and the example we set, etc. are all a part of our everyday legacy. We live it in front of them every single day. Keeping this in mind is vital to helping us stay focused on what we really want them to see in and hear from us and what we want them to know. This can cause us to take that extra deep breath (or two) before correcting our little angels! This can cause us to pause and think before we make a choice about something. This can (and should) cause us to hit our knees asking for strength, perseverance and guidance every day!
Do we have to be perfect? No. If we aren’t perfect in this every day (or even every week), will our children turn out to be heathens? Not necessarily.
We do our part – be obedient by the grace of God to raise our children in the ways and words of God – and God will take care of His part. We will not answer to God for our children’s salvation; we will answer to God for the obedience (or lack thereof) of raising them as He directs us in His Word.
To do this, we need to make sure that our lifeline is to God Himself. He made our precious children, entrusted them to our care and will supply everything we need to raise them in His ways. He will not abandon us or leave us to our own devices. Everything we need is found in Him alone. Run to Him today and everyday, and let Him shape His legacy in you so you can live it out for your children all the days of your life.
Tara is a mommy, writer & Christian mommy mentor whose passion is to equip Christian moms to live their spiritual legacy in front of their kids every day. Sign up for her free parenting resource at her website www.taramcclenahan.com.
Great post! Your son is indeed blessed to have a mommy so passionate about his spiritual legacy! Thanks for sharing -
Amen & Amen! We must be obedient to “training up our children in the nurture & admonition of the Lord”. and we must take comfort in God’s working in our children in spite of our shortcomings and mistakes. We do the earthly work, He does the spiritual work.