
Throughout the month of June this year, I thought much about the culture in which we live. Not too many years ago, June was just another month of the year; excitement for kids as they go on break from school, the beginning of beach trips, playing with friends, camping trips, and swimming in the pool. Nowadays, June is known as Pride Month and is host to all manner of grotesque celebrations of abomination and sin. My two oldest children are 12 and 10 years old and this year, they seemed to have more questions about LGBTQ issues than any year before. This year required more shepherding during June than previous years.
This prompted me to ask myself: are my wife and I catechizing our children and training them up in godliness, in piety, and in the Scriptures so that they know how to respond or how to think during times such as these? To borrow a phrase from the White Horse Inn, I want my children to know “what they believe and why they believe it.” [1]
The world will catechize our children in the ways of sin and depravity, whether we want it to or not. A ten-minute foray into social media will prove this fact. This is not to make a boogie man of social media or television, because we know that sin is already in our own hearts (Genesis 6:5). But we do need to ask ourselves as parents: what are our children being exposed to and trained in? Are they being exposed to the way of rejection, revolution, and sin? Or are they being exposed to the way of obedience, piety, and godliness? Are they being raised on a diet of social media, individual expression, and selfishness with the highlight of the week being travel sports? Or are they being raised on a diet of Scripture, corporate worship, prayer, sacraments, and Christian fellowship with the highlight of the week being the Lord’s Day Sabbath?
Think, for a moment, about the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. 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.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
In this passage, Moses is reiterating the Law to the people of Israel before they cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan. As part of this instruction, Moses is instructing the people of Israel in how they ought to teach and train their children. What is the extent of instruction that Moses tells Israel to give to their children? He tells them to teach the Scriptures to their children as they sit in their house, as they walk and go about their daily business, when they go to sleep, and when they wake up. Essentially, Moses is telling parents to teach the Word of God to their children at all times of the day, no matter where they are, and no matter what they are doing.
Moses goes on to tell Israel to bind the Word of God on their hands, as frontlets between their eyes, and on the doorposts and gates of their houses. Certain sects of Judaism take this portion of the command literally and attach scrolls on the doorposts of their houses. However, there is a metaphorical sense to this command as well. If you were to attach the Word of God on your hands, you would see it every time you stretched out your hand. You would likely see it hundreds of times throughout the day. If you were to attach the Word of God as frontlets between your eyes, everybody would see the Scriptures when they looked at you and you would see the Scriptures whenever you looked at someone else. If you were to attach the Word of God to the doorposts and gates of your house, you would see the Scriptures every time you entered or exited. This command has the effect of saturating our lives with the Word of God; everywhere we looked, everywhere we went, everything we did, we would see the Scriptures and the commands of God.
God instructs us as parents to teach our children the Word at all times throughout the day. We ought to make it a priority whether we are waking up or going to sleep, whether we are at home or going about our business. It ought to be obvious to our children that we view the world and life through the lens of God’s Word, because God’s Word is how we ought to frame our minds and hearts.
The Westminster Larger Catechism and Westminster Shorter Catechism were written for instruction and training in the Scriptures and righteousness. The Westminster Shorter Catechism is ideal for teaching children. The Westminster Divines, understanding the grave importance of parents instructing their children in the faith, included a short letter at the beginning of the Confession and Catechisms entitled “To the Christian Reader, Especially the Heads of Families.” One portion of this preface says
“How much the serious endeavours of godly parents and masters might contribute to an early seasoning the tender years of such as are under their inspection, is abundantly evident, not only from their special influence upon them, in respect of their authority over them, interest in them, continual presence with them, and frequent opportunities of being helpful to them; but also from the sad effects which, by woful experience, we find to be the fruit of the omission of this duty.” [2]
If you are not studying the Scriptures and catechisms with your children right now, I do not write this to make you feel guilty. Family worship is full of peaks and valleys throughout the months and years; times of starting, stopping, and starting once again. Instead, I write this as encouragement to take responsibility for your family. Take responsibility for training them up in godliness, piety, and obedience to God’s Word. Make today the day in which you take up family worship once again or for the first time. Take ten minutes each night to read a passage from the Scriptures and talk about it. Take ten minutes each night to read one or two catechism questions and discuss the answers. Psalm 119:10-12 tells us “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!” Endeavor to store up the Word of God in your hearts and in the hearts of your children, so that they know the Scriptures and view the world through them.
As Christians, we tend to think that we are the only ones who catechize our children. In reality, the sinful world also catechizes our children. Train up your children by taking them to corporate worship on the Lord’s Day, by reading the Scriptures with them, and by studying the catechisms with them. If you do not catechize your children in the ways of the Lord, then the sinful world will most certainly catechize them in the ways of the evil one.
[1] “About,” White Horse Inn, accessed July 14, 2024, https://whitehorseinn.org.
[2] Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition (Philadelphia: William S. Young, 1851), 3.
Jared Dean serves as pastoral intern at Liberty Church PCA in Owings Mills, MD while he pursues ordination. Jared has also served as a police officer for 15 years and a provisionally-endorsed chaplain for 1.5 years at a county police department in Maryland. Jared and his wife Kristin have been married for 15 years and have three daughters.
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