I’ve been hearing a lot lately about leading the next generation, bringing them up to love the Lord and build up the Church. Different churches have different approaches to this, but it usually involves a close look at how we are teaching our children.
During the height of the pandemic when my church switched to online services and I no longer had a class of little kids to teach at church, I realized something. Children’s ministry isn’t relegated to the church building. If you have a child in your life, you are in children’s ministry.
Deuteronomy 6:7 stresses the importance of teaching our children God’s commandments in every aspect of our life. This is so important that we get the same command in Deuteronomy 11:19.
One of the important commandments that Deuteronomy 6:5 stresses is And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40 and Mark 12:28-31 tells us that this commandment and the commandment to love our neighbor as ourself are the two greatest commandments. That all the commandments God gives us hang on these two.
1 John 5:1-3 tells us, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Loving God and following His commandments obviously go hand-in-hand, which tells me that love is super important in the Christian walk. Then again, most of us should already know that, right? After all, love is what sent Jesus to the cross.
But are we leading our children to love one another? Are we teaching them the importance of putting Christ first? Of loving our enemies?
I stand by the importance of teaching children Bible verses and helping them learn doctrine and theology. But we can’t just teach our kids by drilling the Bible. We have to live it, too.
Leading by example is exactly what Jesus did. And His example is one we’re supposed to follow, isn’t it?
So for the next four weeks, I want to explore what we can do to lead the next generation by our love. I have made an acronym for the four things I want to focus on: language, obedience, vision, and expression.
