Our Children’s Education

by Bryan Gibson

Many of our readers will be sending their children back to school shortly.  No doubt you’re concerned that your children get a good education. You should be.  We all want our children to be prepared for what lies ahead, and a good education can go a long way in preparing them.

But are you just as concerned about their spiritual education, their education in the word of God?  You should be, because what they learn in the word of God is more important than anything they learn in a textbook.

Long ago, God gave the Israelites these instructions concerning their children’s spiritual education:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! {5} You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. {6} And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. {7} 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. {8} You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. {9} You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

Clearly, God wanted the Israelites to spend a lot of time teaching their children the word of God. Do you think God expects anything different from parents today?  Of course not. How can we bring our children up “in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) if we don’t teach them the word of God? Parents, we need to learn the word of God, and we need to teach it to our children. It is the only book that can guide our souls—and their souls—to heaven.