Faithful Friday - "Building a Foundation"

Today for Joy’s Faithful Friday, I’d like to share a message that I shared at our homeschool group’s kindergarten commencement back in May , when I was asked to speak. It was something that I feel strongly about and that the Lord laid on my heart to share that evening. I’d like to share it with you today.

Just as a foundation is important to the building of any home, so is the foundation to the building of our children.

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I think we would probably all agree that learning to read or write is very important and that we desire for our children to have strong academic skills. However, I feel there’s something even more important. We have the opportunity now to lay a strong foundation in God and His Word….a foundation that will stand and not crumble. And God gives us, as parents, that responsibility, or commandment…..not even to the church, Sunday School or teachers.

Deuteronomy 6:5 says: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” And then he follows in Deuteronomy 6:6 to say, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shoult talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.”

Wow! That pretty much doesn’t give us a vacation from teaching our children – does it?

And diligently signifies the manner in which we are to teach them – with perserverance and carefulness.

So important is this that he even repeated it again in Deuteronomy 11:19 - 20, “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. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thine gates:”

In this entire passage, he was impressing upon the Israelites before entering the promise land the importance of teaching their children these things because their children weren’t the ones that had seen and experienced what God had done for them and His discipline. It was so imperative that they teach this to their children that he reminded them to etch it; fix it; in their heart and mind and teach it to their children – to our children – constantly – diligently – so that we can enjoy the blessing of the Lord. No man will be able to stand against us because of God’s promise, He says.

He even said in Deut. 11:26, “I set before you a blessing and a curse – a blessing if you obey these commands, and a curse if you disobey.”
That’s a BIG promise and I’m so glad we have God’s promise that if we lay the foundation now and teach our children diligently His ways then we have His blessing.

We’ve talked a great deal here at home lately about FOUNDATIONS. ….of how important it is. We see many children from Christian homes turning from God. Our family has also been reading the book Already Gone by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer. It’s an eye opener. So many, by the time they get to college (not persuaded at college but by the time they get there) are already gone – gone from the teachings of their Christian parents and gone from the church.

So I’d like to challenge you and encourage you to lay a strong foundation – be sure your children know that the Bible, God’s Word, is real – His Story – History – and not just stories from a book (just like any other fairy tale story or book they read). They need to know it’s real, from beginning to end, so later when they’re enticed (and I say when, not if, because they will be enticed by intelligent people who seem to have the right answers to all the real things), they will have a strong foundation and they will stand, without waivering.

Without a strong foundation, they will crumble.

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I’d like to invite you to participate in Joy’s Faithful Friday. If you would like to share anything concerning your Christian walk, please feel free to jump right in. Go over to Joy’s blog and leave her a comment letting her know that you are participating (we still don’t have the linky thing going on yet), so we can come by and visit your blog and enjoy your post too!  And don't forget to grab the button for your post!

Thank you for stopping by! :)


Blessings,
Tammy