posted by Jessica Lynette on Family

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There is still so much left that could be shared on what we could be communicating to our children – I hope that this series served as an encouragement to be intentional and purposeful in what we are communicating to our children.

A wise older friend once advised me; “Do as much as you can when they are young.” These seemingly endless days of childhood are numbered, we must be diligent and purposeful with the time that we have with our young ones. It shouldn’t be a burdensome task to add to our list of things to do, but more something that naturally flows from us as we live a life of simple obedience before God, mindful that we are pointing our children to Him and giving Him the glory and praise.

In thinking about what my concluding post for this series would be I was drawn to my notes taken during a message at church two years ago on the life of Ezra about preparing yourself for the rest of your life. While the message was given to adults for adults {and is totally applicable to us!} I am drawing my inspiration from it to apply to what we can communicate to our children in preparing them for the rest of their lives.

“For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” {Ezra 7:10}

Even though we don’t know what is coming as our children grow and the world around us changes we can be prepare them for the rest of their lives by arming them with the Word of God.

Ezra prepared his heart to seek the laws of the Lord. He took advantage of what he had, which was the law of Moses {vs 6}, and he knew it well. We need to avail our children to the things that are available to them now and encourage them in these things so that their hearts might continue to be drawn to the things of the Lord.

God’s Word is available today like it has never been before - there is no reason why our children shouldn’t be hearing God’s Word faithfully. There are picture Bibles to match any illustrative style that strikes your fancy, there are artists that sing God’s word to catchy tunes, there are movies devoted to explaining God’s Word – and none of those are to take place of God’s Word itself, which comes in dozens of versions and in audio form – which has dozens of choices for voice preference and version preference. To prepare our children for the rest of their lives they need to be armed with the Word of God – to be familiar with it. To know it through memory and time spent with it. 

Their hearts need to be pointed towards truth, which is revealed through the Word of God. They also need to be seeing us acting in agreement with the Word of God so that we are not a stumbling block to our children.

We need to surround our children with local fellowship. It’s work getting the kids out the door Sunday morning. In one of Elisabeth Elliot’s essays in Keep a Quiet Heart she says; “Sunday mornings can be a real test of a mother’s sanctification… but everything… is the King’s Business, which He looks on in loving sympathy and understanding … This is what He has given us to do, this task here on this earth, not the task we aspired to do, but this one.”

We are so blessed to have the local church body that we have – while we are far from our family and the friends we grew up with – this local body has proven to be a loving, caring family that has stepped in and helped carry our burdens several times. That’s not to say it’s been all happy-happy – there have been problems, there’s been hurts, there’s been loneliness. But that’s what happens when a group of forgiven sinners get together. We aren’t perfect – but Christ’s love is, and in seeking to honor Him above all else the fluff fades – and for our kids to be exposed to that, to be a part of it, is incredible.

And finally, we need to teach our children to rejoice when God answers prayer, blesses or gives opportunities. As with most things, I think this is best taught through modeling it ourselves.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 instructs us; “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” We are called to be a thankful people, and through a life of simple thanksgiving I believe we can mold and shape our children profoundly.

While all of our paths are different and each of our days play out uniquely I think these four things being made into significant focuses in our children’s lives will help in preparing them for the rest of their lives as they move out into the world on their own:

Arming them with the Word of God.
Pointing their hearts to truth.
Surrounding them with local fellowship.
Rejoicing and being thankful people.

Thank-you for joining me on this 31 day series!!

Day 31 of 31 Days of Communicating With Our Children. Click here to see all posts in this series.