Take a Minute -- Wednesday, 5/12/10 -- FOR EXAMPLE -- Deuteronomy 12:12, 18
J.R. & Bonnie Ricks
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FOR EXAMPLE -- Deuteronomy 12:12, 18 NIV
And there rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. … Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levites from your towns – and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God in everything you put your hand to.
God told His people that they were to worship with their families. Everyone in a man's household should be there to participate in worship - sons, daughters, servants - everyone. In that way, each man would set an example for his family. By observing the man of the house in worship, the wife, children and servants would learn valuable lessons. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? You and I do the same thing. We take our children with us to church, teach them to sit still, to listen, to watch us sing and pray and worship.
But God's wisdom goes a lot further than man's. When the Israelites worshipped, they not only prayed and sang, they confessed their sins. They offered sacrifices to pay for those sins. If they didn't expose themselves by offering the sacrifices, they wouldn't be forgiven. All their warts were out in the open for their children and everyone else to see. God wanted their families to see not only the good, but the bad and the ugly, too. Because this, too, would set a good example for the children.
Why? What possible use could it serve for your children or your spouse to know what your sins are? How will it help them to know you’ve failed? It’s quite simple… if your son looks at you and sees only the good, how will he learn to deal with the bad within himself? If he sees only what he perceives to be perfection in you, how will he understand what he is to do with the imperfection in himself? A child needs to know that his parents are just as fallible as he is. He needs to know that the only model of perfection is Jesus.
Also, a child also needs to understand true humility… and there is nothing more humbling than to confess a wrongdoing to your child. When a parent confesses to a child that he has been wrong about something, it builds respect for that parent in the child's eyes. And it illustrates for the child what he should do when he has done something wrong himself.
Do your children see you in worship? Do you have a family time of prayer every day? Do your children see you studying the Word? Do you confess to your children when you have been wrong, and ask their forgiveness?
Remember, you are your child's role model in every area of life. Make sure that you’re presenting the right kind of role model to your children – one that is humble and open and honest in every way.
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6 NIV
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