“Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got! Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9 The Message Bible)
I was tutoring a third grader in math the other day. When I commented on how well she knew how to multiply, using techniques we were never taught to employ in problem solving, she said, “We learn geometry too!” To prove her point she started drawing triangles, squares and rectangles, and telling me the degree of each angle in her diagrams. Without stating it in terms we were taught, she was explaining the angle, side, angle theory and more! This was refreshing and reassuring, not just because she understood concepts that I recall fellow students having difficulty with at the high school level, but because it showed me that children are not too young to learn many concepts.
Consequently, figuring things out like I was working an algebraic formula, I concluded that they could learn other things, concepts that many of us did not learn about until we took elective leadership or psychology courses as young adults. Like a mathematician testing a formula, determined to prove a hypothesis or premise, I went further out to prove that children can learn a lot more than we think. Here is what I did, involving the children in our tutoring ministry who assemble on Monday and Tuesday evenings at what I label “The Community Table.” Check this out! They have been exposed to, in terms they can understand, crisis management, transactional analysis, anger management, the impact of complimenting, avoiding hurt due to the long-term impact it has, and the long time that it takes to get over being the one who experiences hurt. They also identified that fixing hurt requires time, effort, help, and energy. I am trying to prove that you don’t have to wait to instruct our children.
Another example: Monday we used balloons to demonstrate how anxiety and stress could be released, including the release of angry feelings. Tuesday morning, one of the parents let me know that one of the students, a kindergartner, got it, evident by how he released his anger slowly on the way home from tutoring. This is more evidence that you don’t have to wait to teach our children. And get this part because it is important, this includes not waiting to explain terms adults easily understand when mentioned in church, terms like sanctification, justification, mercy, and reconciliation. You don’t have to wait to apply the portion of the Shema that I included in the opening passage. Teach our children and your grandchildren those things which are positive and profitable and teach them now. There is no need to wait. Teach by your words of wisdom, wisdom that comes from God and not the world, and teach by your actions as you model what it means to be a disciple by following the example of our ultimate model, Jesus the Christ. Be a spiritual leader in your home and outside the walls of your house and beyond the doorway by which you enter and exit the church house.
Is it Thursday already! I know how you responded. Let me guess! You just said, “It’s just another day that the Lord has blessed me to see!” Oh, how right you are! Be blessed!
“Train yourself for a holy life! While physical training has some value, training in holy living is useful for everything. It has promise for this life now and the life to come.This saying is reliable and deserves complete acceptance. We work and struggle for this: “Our hope is set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe.”Command these things. Teach them” (I Timothy 4:7-11 Common English Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King