A couple days ago, our kids were playing with their money. One of our kids took a $5 and gave a $1 back to his brother who doesn’t know the difference. Mom saw it and came to me about it. We told him that was deceptive and he basically stole from his brother. We wanted some kind of punishment that related to the misconduct, but we couldn’t think of one. So we gave him the standard discipline for lying.
Then I went in to do my quiet time. I am reading through Leviticus. And low and behold, Leviticus chapter 6, which I happened to be reading that day, deals with a person who deceives someone and/or steels. The prescribed punishment is, “He shall make restitution for it in full and add to it one-fifth more,” Leviticus 6:5. I was so in awe.
I called the boys in the house, sat them down for a quick Bible study. My son, who had done wrong, immediately saw the connection, and became ashamed. We told him that since he deceived his brother out of $5 (really $4, but it seemed it was $5 to him), he had to give him the five back, which he had already done, and give him $1 more. He was pretty bummed about that. It was just the kind of related punishment we were looking for.
The point I want to make is, if we are not in the Bible ourselves, we are not going to know what to teach our kids. It won’t always be that you open to a passage that deals with that day’s issues. But everything we read in there does related to life.
A couple weeks ago I was doing Bible time with my boys and we were learning over several days in Corinthians about giving to the poor. Just a couple days ago my son got some money, and I asked him what portion he wanted to give to God’s causes, and what specifically he wanted to give it to. He set aside half and said, “I want to give it to the poor.” I think he remembered that from our Bible lesson a couple weeks ago.
God and God alone knows what is right and good. We can’t teach our kids right and good apart from learning it from God. It starts with being in the Bible ourselves. Then, make it a next step goal to get your kids in there. How about this?
Do your own reading.
Decide what the main point is.
Maybe pick a verse that explains that main point the best.
Then get your kid(s) and do a brief Bible time with them. Read the one verse. Make the main point. And talk with them about it.
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