Tag: Parenting

Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 5:25, 6:4

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“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her…Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gotten started off on the wrong foot only to get back on track once things got up and running pretty well? I think about the NCAA Men’s March Madness championship game from a couple of years ago. My Kansas Jayhawks were playing UNC for the title. The game didn’t start very well. At the half we were down 15. We weren’t shooting well. They were. It was a pretty dispiriting beginning. But then things got back on track and the game went entirely more smoothly in the second half…unless of course you happen to be a UNC fan in which case this illustration completely fails. Just focus on the win over Duke in the Final Four and you’ll be fine. Let’s jump to something happier for you. The CBS sitcom Young Sheldon is coming to an end. As it does, one particular storyline is getting up and running really well. It’s become for me the best part of the show. Let’s talk about it this morning and why it’s such a good thing.

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Digging in Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:7

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“Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Children typically wind up looking like their parents. Now, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the relationship between fathers and their sons, between mothers and their daughters, winds up with their becoming completely different from one another, but that’s more of an exception than a rule. In most cases, the resemblance is striking – and I don’t just mean physically. In many cases, this is intentional. Parents themselves grew up really enjoying a particular hobby or activity, and as a result, they work rather diligently to teach their kids to enjoy it as well. Sometimes this results in a total whiff (like my attempting to pass down a love for cartoons to my kids which failed rather spectacularly as I am the only one in the house with any kind of an interest in pretty much anything animated). But sometimes we manage to knock it out of the park (like I did with my passion for Kansas basketball and Kansas City sports teams). I’m thinking about all of this today because I recently (and finally!) got to watch the latest installment in the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The movie itself doesn’t have much of anything to do with this, but it got me thinking about it all the same. Let’s talk about the film and I’ll explain why.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 13:8-10

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“On that day explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ Let it serve as a sign for you on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the Lord’s instruction may be in your mouth; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand. Keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Ronald Reagan is famous for making the observation that freedom is never more than a generation away from dying out. His point was that unless we actively inculcate the next generation with a love of American freedom (which is unique in the world), it will not last. It is not a state of affairs that arises naturally, and it will not be maintained without constant and abiding attention. Given recent surveys on the opinions of young people today about various foundational American ideals, I’d say his warning was prescient. Here in Exodus 13, God was in the process of giving the people of Israel their freedom. They were going on a journey to a new homeland where they would be able to live out their freedom to its fullest if they so chose. But He knew that freedom was a tenuous thing and not a natural one. So, one of the things He made clear they needed to do was to pass it on. Let’s talk about this third and most important emphasis of the first part of Exodus 13.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 12:24-27

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“‘Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony. When your children ask you, “What does this ceremony mean to you?” you are to reply, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he spared our homes.”‘ So the people knelt low and worshiped.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes God reveals Himself in ways that are clear, direct, and unmistakable. More often, though, He works behind the scenes and gives us the task of passing along information about and faith in Him from one generation to the next. He does not, however, leave us alone and unequipped to do this. His big reveals are intended to become tools for us to use in passing on knowledge of Him generationally. We see this in the next part of the story of the Exodus. Let’s talk this morning about the last thing Moses says to the people before sending them on their way to get ready for the first Passover.

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Morning Musing: Luke 1:17

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“And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I had a conversation recently with a friend who had some family coming home for Thanksgiving. They were arriving that evening and she had spent the whole day preparing for it – cleaning, decorating, cooking, and the like. You’ve probably experienced something similar. When we know someone is arriving soon, we get ready. We are in the season of Advent, which is when followers of Jesus prepare for His arrival. Before His first coming, God helped His people get ready. He did this primarily through Jesus’ cousin, John. Let’s start our Advent journey this morning by talking about how and what it means for us.

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