Read The Bible

18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: Deuteronomy 11:18-20

As we start another year, I can’t help but to ponder about all the changes that have occurred over my life. As I think back I began reminiscing about my now grown kids nothing earth changing just how things have changed since my oldest was born. I thought about the internet and cable tv both of which has changed life for the better and worse. Better because it has made the world a smaller place I am able to talk to people all over the world and the information useful information that is on the internet, before the internet if you wanted to know what it was like when Jesus’ walked the earth it would mean a trip to the library and hours of research, now it is just type a few words and wham, you have your information. Of course, we all know the bad the prolific spread of porn and the predators that are using the internet to get to our children.

 I started to go over their school years and I thought how much had changed since I was in school. I mean when we did multiplication we had to know our tables my teacher snapped her fingers twice and if you couldn’t answer how much was ten times elven by the end of the second snap you wrote the whole tens and eleven tables twenty time each, now they want the kids to use something called common core to do math, I still have no idea how it works even though my youngest tried to explain it to me.

Now with grandchildren, I must wonder how they will be taught and what they will learn. I am old enough to recall morning prayers in school and my teacher reading us a bible verse each morning when I first started school. Now you can’t even say the word bible in school without having people raising up arms. So, the bible teaching falls on the Christian parent where it has always belonged and in my opinion, the way it should always be. As a parent how can you trust anyone with your most precious gift you have ever received your children and their immortal soul?  The bible is very clear that it is the parent’s responsibility to teach the children how to live in Christ.  It says in 1Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. Jesus Himself said in Matthew19:13-14 Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

 So as all of us begin this new year let’s make a vow to spend at least thirty minutes a day with your children reading and going over the bible.  By doing this it will get your children in the habit of studying the bible daily and it will help you also. It is said the best way to learn something, is to teach it.  As you read and study the bible together if you have a question you can’t answer write it down and then research it together. If you are a grandparent you can always join in with your children and grandchildren or even offer to study the bible with your grandchildren if the parents are too busy.   Yes, it is important for the children to go to church and Sunday school, but it is far more important that our children learn from a young age on up the most important book that was ever written, even if they are older it is never too late to start them on the path to salvation.   Believe it or not a parent has a lot of influence over a child and most often a child even a teenager will emulate the actions they see their parents do so if they see you studying the bible they will be more aped to study the bible and if you have them study with you it will even make a bigger impression on them. May God bless and Keep you and your family through this coming year.