No more teenagers in the parking lot at night! They’re not going to go near that Mozart stuff. His music cleared the parking lot. Now, that’s a great way to win.
In Deuteronomy 6 there is a part where God tells us how to raise Christian children in a non-Christian world. Until now these parents had been raising their children around people who believe what they believe. Now, they’re going to have to raise their children in a pagan culture, a pleasure-mad, godless environment. There’s going to be a lot of temptations for their kids.
How should parents deal with all these pagan influences?
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
Or, if you’re like me and love bullet points, it looks like this. Parents should deal with worldly influences by thinking about them.
“They are . . .
- “to be upon your hearts”
- impressed or stressed “on your children”
- “talk about them when you sit at home and”
- “talk about them when you walk along” and
- “talk about them when you lie down” and
- “talk about them when you get up”
- “tie them as symbols on your hands”
- “bind them on your foreheads”
- “write them on the doorframes of your houses” and
- “on your gates”
So that is God’s strategy. He drowns out the sounds of the world with the sounds of a Christ-seeking and Christ-centered home.
You can live in a busy world of sin and make an oasis of peace and sanity. We hear all the appealing voices and see all of the tantalizing temptations and some of us try to keep our kids out of it or pretend that these is no other music. But God says in essence, “You can’t stop the world from trying to tempt you children away from you, but you can play the music of Jesus louder by impressing my teachings on their hearts.”
“Impressing” these teachings implies more than just talking and listening. To make an impression on something physically, you’ve got to be right next to it, in touch with it.
It’s not just teaching Christian answers; it’s spending lots of up and close personal time with them. It’s interweaving God talk and God values into their everyday activities. The best place to learn about Him, to see the reality of your faith is in the classroom of everyday life. It’s debriefing your child daily from their venture into the world.
Even better is what they see from your life. If they see you loving Jesus, enjoying Jesus yourself. Not so much pushing Jesus but enjoying Him; a spontaneous faith treats Jesus like the unseen member of our family; the decisive person in all the things that matter to you.
Just like the 7-Eleven owner found, the world’s music can’t drown out Jesus’ if you play it the way you are supposed to. So don’t waste a lot of time trying to fight the world’s blaring music. Just play Jesus’ song louder, with a living faith in your family.