“Mommy read out loud from a chapter book while we ate. I’m starting to kind of like chapter books, even though they don’t have any pictures; I can make the pictures in my head now.”*
I love the instruction we received twenty years ago about teaching your children everything all the time! It is based on a passage in Deuteronomy about when you should talk to your children about God (what he’s done for you; about his love, justice, mercy, etc; everything about him!):
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes" Deuteronomy 6:5-8 (NKJV)
It essentially lists four key times, times that might be considered “useless” for instruction, but yet are actually very “teachable moments”:
1. When you rise up—in the mornings before the busy-ness of the day begins
2. When you sit down---anytime you are just sitting around with your kids (while you’re waiting, driving, etc.)
3. When you walk by the way—again while just walking through life (at the grocery, taking a walk, going to your next event or appointment, etc.)
4. When you lie down—bedtime!
In the “Jonathan’s Journal” passage for today, Jonathan enjoyed listening to a chapter book being read aloud while he ate breakfast—the first two opportune times in our Deuteronomy verse—when you rise up and when you sit down.
These Old Testament verses are obviously not law or commandments. But like many other passages throughout the Bible—they are good, common sense ideas that yield tremendous fruit. (Doing things the Bible says has that effect!) Incorporate teaching times—via talking, reading aloud, listening to audios together, etc. into times that are already part of your life.
We are all our children’s first—and most important—teachers, whether our children are homeschooled, private schooled, or public schooled. We have the four opportunities listed in Deuteronomy to use as teaching times—times to tell our kids about the importance of good character, to talk about God and His ways, to reiterate the sacrifice Christ made for us so that we could live forever in heaven, to emphasize the importance of people and relationships, to instruct in how to get along with others, and so much more.
The next time you are “with your children in the way,” or you “rise up in the morning,” or you “sit down with them for a meal,” or you “lay them down for sleep,” consider the “teachable moments that are before you—and teach your children the Old Testament, common-sense, heart-reaching way.
*For the complete story of “Jonathan’s Journal, follow this link: http://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html
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