“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Whenever I’m with my grandsons I am conscious of the verses above as it relates to them and to our own kids. Looking back, I think we did our best with what we knew at the time as parents in their twenties to point them toward what it means to live a godly life.

Moses wrote that teaching your children is more than a few minutes of a devotional at night or prayer before going off to school. Moses isn’t talking about Biblical references painted on the walls of our homes. Moses is talking about living and teaching what it means to “love the Lord your GOd with all your heart and with all your soul and all your might” during your everyday life with your kids.

I’ve heard others say it, but I associate the phrase with the teaching of Chip Ingram who I’ve heard say, “More is caught than taught.” Our kids watch our lives. They often perceive more than we give them credit for, don’t you think? They know if we are committed to being truthful, and loving and kind to others. They are quite literally learning by our example (as my grandson Trace said, a good or bad influence).