Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little (Isaiah 28:9-10).
We all need to teach and teach and teach our children and grandchildren at every opportunity. Lessons must be seen as well as heard daily. These lessons must be illustrated and reinforced time after time – facilitating learning by rote memory at first, even by unconscious assimilation because it is lived daily in their homes, and finally by understanding.
One mother told about her experience with a person who did not comprehend how and why we teach our children at every opportunity. She said, "The other day I was in the grocery store checkout line and the lady behind me asked why I was getting little kid bicycle helmets so soon after Christmas, as if the only time we can get our children anything special is Dec. 25! I just told her that my four year old twins were learning the meaning of the word covenant, and that we had discussed about Abraham's covenant with God that morning. I further explained that this was my end of a covenant that I'd made with them to show them what a covenant was, and that they had to keep up their end in order to get the reward. The lady in the check-out line rather sarcastically commented, 'I bet they'll remember that for all of two minutes!'"
Responding more to herself than to the worldly lady, the Christian mother said, "Not if they understand what we teach them and we live it and use it and talk about it all the time."
Obviously, the lady in the grocery line did not care what that mother had to say at that point, but then she was not trying to please people of the world; she had a Lord to glorify and her children's souls to save.
Perhaps we might all better understand the principle by reading Deut 6:7-9 and analyzing it part-by-part to be sure we apply it correctly.
· And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
· and shalt 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.
· And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
· and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
· And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house,
· and on thy gates.
Beth Johnson
(http://www.oldpaths.com)