Religion in the Home Part 6

SOME PRACTICAL WAYS TO TEACH RELIGION IN THE HOME

The wave of juvenile delinquency that is sweeping over our nation today has assumed such vast proportions and has become so general that it has become a matter of grave concern to all thinking people. Our judges, ministers, teachers, civic leaders, and social workers realize that something must be done. There are many things that have contributed to the conditions that now exist. The sacredness of the marriage vows and the home have been seriously endangered by the wave of divorce that has been sweeping our land for sometime. Homes are being broken up, and many children are being left half-orphaned by such procedure. Since the war has come on, many mothers have forsaken the home and the responsibility of motherhood and have taken jobs in defense plants. Their children are turned loose to run the streets and get into all kinds of mischief. Many men and women seem to have lost all sense of their responsibility to teach and train their children, and seem to be pleasure mad. They are bent on having a good time, regardless of what may happen to their children. If something is not done about these things, the future of our nation is dark indeed. We need a revival of religion that will re-establish the sacredness of marriage and of the home. Parents must be brought to see that one of the most serious responsibilities they have is that of the proper teaching and training of their children.

Now, I am ready to admit that the times in which we live make it very difficult to train children right. We are living in a very complex age, and there are forces at work against the home that were not known when I was a boy. The parents of today have many more things to contend with than my parents had. The movies, road-houses, taverns, automobiles, and many other things are taking our children out of the home in ways that were not even thought of in my childhood. Even the schools are demanding more and more of the time of our children, and in the average community there are many things to take our children out of the home and away from the care and teaching of the parents.

When I was a boy, life was much simpler than it is today. I recognize that my parents did not have as many things to cope with as have the parents of today. When I was a child, there were not so many places to go and not so many things to call for the time of children as there are today. In fact, in my boyhood it was the usual thing for the whole family to be together for evening meal and spend our nights at home. The rule at our house then was that every child was to be at home when the street lights were turned on at night. It was a comparatively easy matter for mother to get the family Bible and read and talk to us about God. I remember we had an old organ at home, and my oldest sister could play some of the old hymns of the church. We would have a good time together singing the old hymns and talking about religious subjects. Even on Sunday afternoon the children of the community would gather at our house and we would spend the afternoon around the old organ singing and talking. I really believe we had a better time in that day than many young people have today. Many people grew up out on the farm, and in the days of their childhood the whole family could gather around the altar for prayer and the worship of God. It was a very easy matter to have a family altar then, for the family were all there for it.

However, the times are entirely different now. In many homes the family seldom ever get together for such seasons of fellowship. In many instances the home has become a place to run in and change clothes, so that each member of the family can run to meet some other engagement. There are many homes today that have very little fellowship in the family. A part of the family is out at one time, while the other part may be asleep. Then this part of the family may be asleep while that other partis gone to some place of work of pleasure. Many parents seldom see their children except at meal time. It is not such an easy matter to teach religion to our children today. Children have so many things demanding their time and attention that the parents do not get much chance to teach them. The extra-curricular activities of the schools are monopolizing their time. It seems to me that there must be a plan worked out whereby the parents can at least have a chance to give their children some teaching at home. The parental teaching is just as vital and important as the school teaching.

Now, after saying these things and recognizing the many obstacles in the way of teaching religion to our children today, I want to say that if we cannot do it as our parents did, then we must find some way by which we can teach and train our children as they should be taught and trained. If we cannot do it as our fathers and mothers did, then we must find some other way by which it can be done. After all, our children are our most valuable possessions and we cannot afford to fail them. If we miss out on giving them the proper teaching and training, nothing else will count. Even if we win the war and lose our children to sin and Satan, we have lost the real battle. Something must be done about the youth of our nation. The home must find a way to fulfill its mission. May God help us not to fail at this point.

Still recognizing the many difficulties that we face today in teaching and training our children, I want to say that there is a plan that will work. There are some things we can do to remedy the situation. In this brief lesson we read from the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy we have some practical suggestions as to how religion can be taught in the home regardless of what age we may live in. Conditions may change, but these principles will work in any age. I want to suggest some of these things that are brought out in this passage of scripture.

1. We must have these things written in our hearts.

The parents cannot hope to teach their child to be religious if they are not religious themselves. The influence of example is more powerful than any teaching which may be given otherwise. So if we are going to teach our children we must first of all give our hearts and lives to God and become really Christian ourselves. As has already been said in the first part of this message, it is perfectly natural for the child to follow the example of the parents. If the parent is Christian then half the battle is won toward winning the child for Christ and giving it the right kind of teaching. The unconscious influence of a Christian parent cannot be estimated. I have seen many boys and girls that could not be won for Christ because their parents were not Christians. And again, I have seen the father come to the altar to seek Christ and his son come right along behind him.

Some years ago I was asked to baptize a baby. The next week the father of that child came to me on the street and said, "Preacher, I am going to have to get religion." I said, "Well, that is fine! What ever made you decide to take such a step as this?" He said, "My wife has been insisting for sometime that we must dedicate our child to God by baptism. I finally agreed to have it done in order to please her, but I had no idea the vows, I would be called upon to take when my child was baptized, contained what they do. When I stood there before the altar and you began to fire those questions at me I did not feel that I could back down. The only thing to do was to go through with it and take the vows. But I am not fit to carry out those vows in the condition I am now in. I can't hope to teach my child to love the Lord, live religious, and renounce the world and sin, if I have not done so myself. I am going to have to get religion so that I ran teach my child as I promised to do." I would to God that many other fathers and mothers could be brought to feel the same way about their children.

2. We are to teach these things unto our children by talking about them.

Our conversation with our children has a great deal of weight with them. They pay a great deal more attention to what we say than we imagine. Sometime ago a good friend of mine told me ofusing a bad word in the presence of his only son. In just a minute or two the child used the same word. That father told me that he learned a lesson right there. Yes, children listen to us talk and come to us with questions about many things. This gives us an excellent opportunity to teach religion to them in the most simple and unassuming way. Many times they will ask us to tell them a story. When they do this we could tell them a religious story that has some vital truth in it, rather than tell them some ghost story or some myth or fable. Instead of telling them about Goldilocks and the three bears, we could tell them about Daniel in the lion's den. We could tell them about Samuel, Joseph and the three Hebrew children in the furnace of fire. We could tell them about the little child, Jesus, or the boy Jesus in the temple. We could tell them about the boy that gave his lunch to Jesus to feed the multitudes. There are many such good stories that could be told to small children in a simple way, and they will remember them throughout their life. I shall never forget some of the beautiful stories my mother told me when I was a child. They are a part of my very life and have meant more to me than I could ever tell.

May I ask, dear reader, what do you talk to your child about when you are with him? Do you ever talk to him about God and religion? There are many children today that know a great deal more about football players, baseball players, prize fighters and movie actors and actresses than they know about the great characters of the Bible. They can tell you a great deal more about Tom Mix or the Lone Ranger than about Jesus Christ. It is really pathetic how little some of our children do know about Christ and God. Their parents never talk to them about such things.

I have been called upon to conduct the funeral of men and women who had reared a large family of children to manhood and womanhood. In fact many times these children were married and had children of their own. When I would go to the home to get the facts about the life of the person that was dead, the children could tell me all about their parents except when they were converted and joined the church. Think of it! They had lived with their children for all of those years and told them other facts about their life, but had never talked enough about their own personal experience in Christ for their children to know when and where it happened. I firmly believe that if many parents who profess to be Christian, would just sit down and tell their own experience and how they came to be converted; if they would spend a little time in talking to their children about how and why they became Christians and what it has meant to them -- it would put their children under conviction and it might precipitate a revival of religion in many homes and communities. We need to talk more to our children about such things. It will mean a lot to them. It is one of the finest ways in the world to teach religion to our children.

Some parents go to church on Sunday, and after coming home from church, they sit around the dinner table and begin picking the preacher to pieces and spend their time finding fault with him and his sermon.

Then these same parents wonder why the pastor does not have any influence with their children, and why he can't win them for Christ. I can tell them why. They have destroyed the confidence of their child in the minister. They have so discredited him in their eyes that his hands are tied when he comes to deal with the children. A great deal depends on the attitude taken about such things.

The old Jews had a wonderful system for teaching religion to their children. Each year they would make trips to Jerusalem for the purpose of attending the feasts and offering sacrifice to God. They took their children along with them on these long trip. As they walked along during the day they would point out places of interest to their children and tell them of things that had happened there in the past. They would tell of how God had dealt with their fathers in days past and gone. Their land was filled with many historic spots and they taught their children the history of them. At night as theysat by the camp fire they would talk of God's dealings with His people in the past. Can you imagine what an impression that would make upon the mind of a boy or girl? They would remember those things as long as they lived. In this way they taught religion to their children.

While we do not take such trips today with our children, there are things in our lives that lend themselves to the same purpose, if we will but use them in the right way. We have Christmas time, when we celebrate the birth of Christ. We could use this time to talk to our children about Him and why He came into the world. We could tell them of the love of God, and how He gave His Son to come and die for us. We could teach them in that way, and it would be far bet ter than the way some people celebrate this event. Easter and the other seasons lend themselves to be used in a similar way, if we will but use them aright. We must talk to our children along the way. The time we do have with them can be used in such a manner that it will make a lasting impression upon their hearts and minds. The mother of Moses did such a good job of teaching her son that when the time came for him to make his choice in life, he turned his back upon a great kingdom and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. If she could do that with her son, certainly we ought to be able to do something f or our children. Just remember, you will only have them for a few short years and then they will be gone from you. If you do not use the time and the opportunity that you now have, it will be gone forever. What we do must be done quickly. Just a few years, and the chance is forever gone. In those few years that you do have, you may be able to instill ideas and truths that will decide the eternal destiny of your child. God help you not to miss it. It would be too bad if you missed out with your child and he should be lost forever. God has given him to you, and you can mark impressions on his heart and mind that can never be completely erased.

3. Write them upon your door-post and on your house.

This suggests that there is to be something about your home that should impress your child with the idea that it is a Christian home. Is there anything about your home that would so impress your child or other people that happen to come there? What about the books and the magazines on your tables? What about the pictures on your walls? Is there anything there that would suggest the idea of God and religion to your child? As a small boy, I remember a picture of Christ on the cross that hung right at the foot of my bed. That picture was the last thing I saw when I went to bed and it was the first thing I saw when I awoke in the morning. I was not conscious at the time of the effect that picture was having on me. However, since I have grown up it seems that I can close my eyes and see that picture just as plain as I saw it when I was a boy. I don't know whether my mother and father ever thought of the impression that picture would have on me or not, but I want to say to you that it can never be erased from the canvas of my memory. When my mother died a few years ago and we came back from the cemetery, my father asked me if there was anything at home that I would especially like to have as a keep-sake. I told him I would like to have that picture of the crucifixion, so that I could hang it in my son's room. I hung it there with the hope that it would have the same kind of effect on my son as it had on me.

I go into many homes today and look at the calendars on the walls. I look at the pictures that are hung there before the eyes of their children, and I cringe to think of the impression some of those pictures will make on the minds of the children. The magazine covers that lie on the tables, the pictures on the walls, and the books that are being read in many homes would make you think you were in a bawdy house instead of in a Christian home. You may never have thought about these things as having any effect on the mind of your child, but they do as certain as anything in the world. They are speaking to the mind and heart of your child in a way that will make a lasting impression upon them. We remember what we see a great deal longer than anything we read. One fine way toteach religion to your child is by wise selection of pictures to go on the wall. Be careful about the magazines you have come to your home. Try to do all you can to have good religious reading matter handy so your child can find it. You could well afford to make some sacrifice to subscribe to good religious papers and periodicals, and have them come into your home. Encourage your children to read the right kind of books. Many boys and girls like to read and they are going to read. If they don't have good reading matter they will read the wrong kind.

You may think it foolish advice, but it would pay you to buy good wall mottoes to hang around your house where the eyes of your child can fall upon them from time to time. They will make lasting impressions on the minds of your children. They will also give the world to understand that your home is a Christian home. I can walk into some homes and glance around at the pictures, mottoes and magazines and tell that religious people live there. Is that true, of your home? Write these things on the gates of your house and on the door-post, and they will help you in teaching your children in the right way. Don't be afraid to let your child and the world know that you stand for something. Make your home different from the dives of worldliness and sin. If you will do this, it will pay great dividends.