Unfortunately, children pick up on everything. Their eyes take in everything with photographic precision. And their ears are always open and recording.  And while we parents wish this was not true, hearing our own questionable phraseology or seeing our bad habits in our children make us know that is it true. And so that is why we are reminding that training up a child is something that happens only when be both show and tell our faith in Jesus.
Some but hope that showing will be enough. A trip to church most Sundays. A bible in the home in a prominent place. Maybe a cross on the wall. They rarely actually talk about the faith, especially in a way that applies in to life as little children experience it.
Other talk about it regularly, but their lives contradict their words even in little ears and eyes. They talk about God, but never visit his house, hand with his people, or read his word. They talk about living right, and yet their morality is a mess.
Some do neither. They figured that a trip to the font and a name scribed into a membership book will be sufficient to pass along the faith to yet another generation.
Deuteronomy 11:18-21 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.”
Christian parents (I speak to myself as well), to raise a child up, we must show and tell. Neither task can be left undone. We must relate the faith in words and in deed. Only then will our children understand who this Jesus we love truly is and what that means to our whole lives now and forever.
I think a lot of parents really want to share their faith with their kids; they just aren’t sure completely how to do it.
One thing I love about our current church is the intentional efforts they make to help and equip parents in this. There’s a Baby Blessing class parents can take that gives practical ways to begin the journey. (For example, in the class they have you write a blessing for your child that you can say nightly over them.) There’s a My Bible class for third graders and their parents that meets for a quarter. It’s full of age-appropriate, multi-sensory bible learning activities, and it helps kids and parents alike to find their way through the bible and share their faiths. It’s very powerful. There are a few other things like that too.
I agree!
But what do we show-and-tell? More morality? More legalistic living?
I’d suggest modeling repentance and forgiving. Helping our kids say “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you”
And that (it’s the toughest part) includes telling our kids “I’m sorry” when we’ve wronged them.
Jon, I think we as parents have to teach both, morality and forgiveness. It is ours as parent to teach right from wrong. But that alone does not make for good parenting as your rightly note.