“Look God, it’s the glory of you!”

My daughter yelled this to the sky as we were strolling through the neighborhood last week.  The sun was setting, a golden lining edged the clouds; it was stunning.  I have probably told my kids “Look, it’s the glory of God!” a hundred times as we’ve looked at green moss, felt the wind blow, or watched a sunset.

In this case, my daughter was only repeating what she’d heard from dad.

Whose job is it to impart faith to our kids anyway?  Many parents believe that as long as they drop their kids off in Sunday school and pray at dinnertime, they have done enough.  But this is only the beginning.  The Bible teaches that it is our duty and our joy as parents to invite our children into the things of God.  He is not far, a thing of bedtime stories; rather, he is quite near.  Perhaps they will even smell or see or touch him.  Perhaps we will too.

The Old Testament says this to parents:  “Teach the ways of God diligently to your sons, talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking on the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.”

This is exciting.  Instead of the news blaring as the kids prepare for the day, the stillness of the dawn invades as the sun shines in and you eat breakfast.  You hear birds.  Did you know there were birds singing every morning?  It is incredible.  Turning off the TV and not checking Fakebook and not needing to know what the weatherman thinks…this creates space.  Then you hear them…the cardinals and the mourning doves and maybe the sky too, announcing God to the waking world.  And you can tell your kids that whatever happens to them today is in God’s control because just as he takes care of those birds outside, he cares much more for them.  The kids march off to school thinking of something real instead of why the weatherman is wrong so much.

Later, you gather around the table again for dinner.  Again, no TV, no internet.  Everyone talks about their day.  Mom shares something wonderful that happened.  Dad shares a difficult situation he dealt with today.  The kids listen, and begin sharing about the new girl at school who has extra thick glasses and the kids smoking pot in the bathroom and how bad the school bus smells.  All of these things become lessons.  Mom encourages to be kind to the new girl, and dad gives warnings about peer pressure.  As dinner closes, mom begins to do the dishes, but dad quickly takes her plate, kisses her bare shoulder, and tells her he’ll take care of the mess.

And later still in the dark, the kids lie quietly, thinking.  Today they saw dad reading the Bible in that same old chair like always.  They know mom sent money to those poor people where the earthquake happened because she asked them to mail the letter.  God was never forced on these kids, but they are keenly aware of his presence in their family because it seems that whatever they were doing, whether waking, eating, mailing a letter, or just sitting around, he was included.

“Look God, it’s the glory of you!”  My hope for our kids is that they grow up and have strong faith in God, not because they were taught about him once a week in a classroom, but because they saw him every day in their houses.

AND CONSIDER THIS!  As I mentioned last week during the teaching when I shared this story about my daughter, we are a church full of and focused on all sorts of people, not just married folks with children.  While this article speaks to families, we enjoy a diverse group – singles, single parents, married without kids, and those called to celibacy.  These are the aunts and uncles of our VCC kids, and they play a very important role!!!