God Rocks!!

Well I’m back to the blog again.  I know two posts in a week, thats some kind of record for me.  The thing is I talking to Tara (my wife) the other day and we were dicussing the fact that I as the spiritual head of my home am responsible for raising a godly family by teaching and discipling them. We have over the years had a practice of doing a family worship or devotional time, the truth is that I have struggled at times with executing this on a consistant basis.  You know how it is, you get busy or worn out from day to day things in life and before you know it you’re skipping it again.  Anyway we were discussing it primarily because I have been talking about hosting a community group bible study at the house, but Tara was a little concerned, as was I that we had slipped a little with the kids.  You see, we do want very much to be active in sharing Jesus with others, and I really enjoy teaching the Bible, but it is so important not to neglect the teaching and training of the family in order to teach others, the truth is that it is important to do both.  I said all of that to say this.

The very next day I was flipping through the radio stations and came across a Focus on the Family Rewind (an old show that they replay).  Now I couln’t tell you when the last time I listened to Focus, not there is anything wrong with that, but I just haven’t listened in a long time.  It just so happens that the show was about this very subject of passing on Jesus to the kids. Not only that, but I had originally heard that show on Focus back in 1997.  I can tell you what I was doing, where I was working, the whole kit and kaboodle.  You see, at that time we only had one child maybe just a couple of months old.  I found the program interesting but wasn’t all that sure about the whole concept of what they were talking about:  ”Object Lessons.”

Today, however, now that I am a little older and have six kids I see the wisdom of the teaching.  It just amazes me how that all of this came to pass.  I mean seriously, God orchestrated through providence literally thousands or maybe more decisions made by humans to provide this impactful opportunity to be helped.

The basic gist of the show is this.  Have a special time one night a week, we’ll call it family night.  The bid idea is to make it a time that is fun and powerful, a time that the kids look forward to all week.  Here’s how it goes:  Pray, review last weeks lesson, introduce the new lesson, pray, have ice cream.  The central part being the lesson which is driven deep in the children’s minds through the use of an object lesson.  An object lesson is a tool using a concrete example to reinforce a spiritual principle.  Sound familiar??  Yeah, its what Jesus did in the parables as well as in other teachings.  The thing is that children (and adults for that matter) learn well when a tangible example is shown.  For instance,  this week I am going to teach on faith or believing in Jesus.  Faith is a rather abstract concept to grasp, so I am planning on putting a glass of water on the table and tying one of kids up to a chair just where they can’t drink the water then explain to them that the water is like Jesus, but the ropes are like sin and no matter how hard they try they can’t get the water without some external help.  Then I will give them a straw and put it to there lips so they can drink the water.  The point is that God gives us the straw which is faith so that we can have the water which is Jesus.  Get it??  No doubt that the kids will never forget the teaching because of the Object Lesson.  

If you have kids, or even if you work with them give it a shot.  You will be amazed at the participation you get from the kids.  Here’s a LINK if you would like to listen to the whole show.

~ by Brad on September 11, 2008.