Over the past three years, the homeschool group has hosted parenting discussions for all of the parents that are in the church.  The discussion are held quarterly and include a discussion that aims to help us do a better job of discipling our kids. This past quarter, we finished the most recent series that we had spent the last year and half covering. Below is a summary of that series.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 states: “”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 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. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

A person who is driven to follow Jesus does not become a disciple by showing up to church once, or even twice a week. It is a process that needs to occur every day as we get out of bed, as we go about our day and as we end each day. Raising our kids to know Jesus will also happen in the same way. It is an ongoing, day to day, moment by moment process. As parents, we first need to have that day-to-day relationship with Jesus that will spread to our kids through our day-to-day interactions with them. During our parenting discussions, we talked about how we can best promote faith discussions with our kids by looking at the T.E.A.C.H. acronym.

Travel Time – We discussed how to use the time we spend traveling to talk to our kids or listen to Bible programs or perhaps praise music on the radio.

Eating Time – How can we make the best use of our family meals together through family devotions or mealtime discussions.

Arising Time – What can we do each morning as we start our day together.

Closing Time – What does the end of the day look like? Do we pray together or read the Bible as the kids go to bed?

Holiday Time – Are there family traditions that point us to Jesus that we can make the best use of? This month we talked a bit about the idea of taking trips or “adventures” together as a family.

All these areas included practical discussion that allowed each family to decide what they can incorporate into their schedule to make the best use of their time together. Throughout all the discussions we had, it seemed that the main point that we often came back to is that a disciple builds other disciples and discipled parents will build discipled kids. All the discussions had some good practical steps to give us ideas of things we should be doing as families but in the end, we can only give to our kids what we first have ourselves.

In Deuteronomy 6, it tells us to diligently teach our kids as we sit in our house, as we walk, as we rise, and as we eat.  We must always remember that as parents, or non-parents that are looking to disciple others,  before we are given such an instruction, we are first told to love our God with all our heart, soul, and strength. Only then we can pass anything of value on to our kids.