Teach Them Diligently

Deuteronomy 6:4-7a

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is 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. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons..." 

I keep writing and re-writing this devotional. It's uncomfortable for me.  It's easy for me to write about Jesus and what a relationship with Him is like.  I can talk New Testament, grace-based, Jesus-is-my-Savior all day long; but, when it comes to "Old Testament God" and His commandments, I stumble.  I don't like legalism and hate anything that smacks pharisee.  So I tread lightly.  And I try to wriggle out of taking on the hard things.  It's cowardly and "pleaser-ish" on my part.  So I'm going to try to push through.  

{Gulp}

There's only One God, and He's ours. He commands us to do two things in today's passage: Love Him with all we've got and teach our kids to do the same. 

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." 

Awesome--and also, a pretty tall order. If I love Him with all my heart, He's the only one who gets all of me. If I love Him with all my soul, it's an inward sincerity (not just in word) to want to know Him. If I love Him with all my might, it's a strong love; I'm giving Him everything I've got. 

That kind of love should regularly cost me; shouldn't it?

We worship the One true God, but my cashier friend at Kroger doesn't; she worships Allah. She is wrapping up her month-long fast of Ramadan on July 28th. She has been fasting from sun up till sun down every day for nearly a month . . . while she works all day long with food. (Both her children have been fasting too, by the way.) 

I feel convicted.

Have we lost sight of LOVING God with our TOTAL devotion? Are we distracted by swim lessons and church camp and vacations and the SnoCone Lady? Is it just too hot outside? I've got a few excuses, dismissals, distractions, diversions, and procrastinations in me.  Just a few. Thousand.

Today, let's LOVE HIM.
Today, let's teach our children to LOVE HIM.

God's Word says, "Teach them diligently."  The word diligently is translated /shanan/ and means "sharp." In this passage it's a perfect consecutive verb meaning to continuously sharpen, whet, incise, and pierce. This is a deliberate, continuous act--that we teach our children what it is to fully love God.

There's never a wrong time to teach them to love him. It's important to God--so it should be important to us. His Word ensures so...

When we sit, stand, lie or rise--and when we're at home or not at home. Sooooo that's pretty much all the time.  And if we can't remember, He adds, remind yourself with jewels, ties, anything on our hands or face--the two places we and others will check it out.  Oh, and one more thing! We should write it on the outside of our homes because we're not hiding this Faith of ours--we're owning it.

I told you it's a tough one.  I've already edited it (again) this morning. Thing is, it's not legalistic. It's a relationship.  It's remembering that we have the most wonderful relationship with Yaweh. That He fills us, sustains us, equips us, and delights us.  And we are giddy, bubbling over--and so we share this love of ours.  We share it with our children. In big and small ways, we purposefully, diligently teach them how to love God. And that's something we can do on the way to get a snow cone. I get peach. Always peach.  You?