A Word for Parents

Judges 2:10

"And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel."

The scene above directly follows the death of Joshua the son of Nun. After the exhortation to "teach them [the laws of the Lord] diligently to your children, and 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," (Deuteronomy 6:7) the children of that generation, who watched the mighty hand of God in the wilderness, allowed their children to not know the Lord. After God instituted the Passover Feast as a way of reminder, and the pillars of rocks, and the tabernacle itself, this generation (who directly followed the generation that took the first portion of the promised land) did not know the Lord. 

Dear Christian parents, let this not be so with our children. May we always be telling our children of the wondrous Lord we serve. Not only in our words, but in our deeds, for to "talk" with our children is not just with our words, as James so clearly states, but with our actions too. We can not be those who speak the truth of God to our children but then do not live it out--or else we become the tool that the enemy uses to drive them away. We are given a responsibility to show our children what it means to be a follower of Christ. There is a deep burden for those who have lost a son or daughter to the world and its desires, so do not be discouraged to the point of despair. It is not our work to bring our children to salvation; it is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, let us not allow ourselves to live a life of weak diluted faith, because, when it has passed through us and our example, our children will only be able to dilute it further. Let us instead live lives in connection to the Living Water, so that we can pass on the eternal waters of life, by the power of Christ and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. May our lives be a witness and our words be truth, and may our children know the Lord through us, by His grace. God help us!