What are we teaching them? 2-3-17

WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING THEM?

As a home school mom I am always thinking of ways to teach my children. God tells us to teach them by the way….

Duet. 6:5-7 

5And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up .

The important things we teach our children are not necessarily math,reading history, etc. I have always joked that we are too busy “doing school” to learn anything. It is true as people in general that we are “too busy”.

We have been talking a lot in this blog about what is important, what is precious, and to not take them for granted. We are not promised tomorrow.

So what are we teaching them? They may be our children or grandchildren, or the neighbors children, or our church children. You might be thinking that you aren’t “TEACHING” any one, but you are! The way we live our lives teaches many things about us to many people. We teach by example. I have heard it said that we may be the only “Bible” some people see. In other words, our actions and words may be the only look at Christ that some people see. That is a scary thought!! Many times what my kids and others see in me is not Christlike! The people we deal with day to day see us in our struggles, sickness, bad moods and all.

When we think no one is looking someone is! And it is not always your three year old who tells on you at the grocery checkout! Once, many years ago, a neighbor came to us to see if anything was wrong. They knew we went to church on Sunday and Wednesdays and had not seen us leave the house all week. Our family had had the flu that week and indeed did not go anywhere. Little did we know that our neighbors were “watching” us. Apparently we were teaching them something through our actions, even though we were not aware of it.

We often think about the example we are to those that are close to us. But people that we are not even aware of watch us. Of course God knows our true motives and our heart desires, but others only know what we tell them, in words or ACTIONS.

As that homeschooling mom who is always trying to get another lesson done, I need to step back and remember what is really important. Kindness, compassion, seeing other’s needs are some of the things we need to teach. We may not get that long division lesson done that we prepared, we may not get the house spotless (we definitely won’t get that done here LOL) but we can stop and take a moment to teach a lesson of the heart. I say this to myself as much as to anyone. I am a lover of lesson plans and organization! It rarely works out like I planned, but that’s okay. As long as it works out as God has planned, I know we’ll be okay!

So love Jesus, put on your rose colored glasses, tell them you love them, and praise God.