photo by Strange Ones
I’ve been running a series about how to teach the Ten Commandments to your children. We’re going to spend a little bit of time looking at each commandment individually.
This series on teaching the Ten Commandments all started when a friend of mine shared a sad commentary on how an audience at the Jay Leno Show couldn’t come up with any of the commandments, but had no problem identifying who the four Beatles were.
The Ten Commandments form the bedrock of our belief system, but many Christians have either forgotten, diluted or altered their definition. If we want our children to one day make a committed decision for Christ and follow Him, then they need to know the basic of the basics.
There are all kinds of ways of learning the commandments, everything from pure rote memorization to playing creative games like Stepping Stones. It’s not enough, however, to be able to list them. Our children need to understand them.
So, here we go. Starting at the top of the list:
“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Ask your child what he thinks God meant by this command. If he’s attended enough Sunday school lessons, he’ll probably come up with:
“God doesn’t want me making anything more important than Him,”
and he’d be absolutely correct. For children it might be their material possessions or the using of their material possessions - for instance, it doesn’t matter what video game he’s playing with, only that he gets his five hours a day in.
As they get older, it may become friends, popularity or even their dreams - some of the same things that adults may put more importance in than their relationship with God. Of course, with adults the playing field opens up a bit. There are a lot more things we can make more important than God - a job, retirement, financial security, status, even our spousal relationship or children can be more important than God.
Practice as a family putting God first in everything. Have each member come up with a list of things that are important to him or her (draw pictures or paste labels for nonreading children). Then, at the top of the list, in big, bold letters, write GOD. Post your lists on the refrigerator or wherever would be a good reminder.
God knows we have things that are important to us. He just wants us to give Him first place.
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