Repeat [the commandments] to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. ~Deuteronomy 6:7–9
Look at that beautiful tree over there. Can you believe how colorful the leaves are this time of year? Isn’t God amazing to create such a thing?”
One of my resolves when our daughters were little girls was to take them along with me on weekend errands. Going to the hardware store alone on a Saturday morning was a huge missed opportunity. I would (encourage them to) turn off the TV cartoons, help them with their blue jeans and sweaters, and put them in the car with me.
Driving to the store gave us a special opportunity to talk. I would ask them about their week at school. I’d tell them about my workweek. We’d count trucks or look for horses on the hillsides. Then sometimes I’d say something about God—nothing heavy or doctrinally deep, just something about how wonderful He is. The girls would acknowledge that what I had said was true; then we’d go on with the conversation. No reference was made to our minister’s particularly insightful sermon the previous week. The simple comment about God was enough.
Following the delivery of the Ten Commandments and the encouragement to love God, which we talked about in the previous reading, Moses told parents to talk about God at home. He told them to talk about God’s ways when they were on trips and at bedtime. He told them to begin each day celebrating God’s goodness. He seemed to be telling the Israelites, “Include God in everything. Don’t do anything or go anywhere without Him.”
The message here is to encourage you to make your faith—and the demonstration of it—as normal as going to work, as common as picking up a few groceries on your way home, and as natural as commenting on the score of last week’s ball game.
The secret of living the Christian life is loving God, obeying His commandments, and weaving Him into the fabric of your family’s life.
Talk about God just as you would your closest friend, your career, or your family. He wants to be included in everything.