Teaching God's Word is Practical for Life

by Michael Dante Aprile

As Christian parents, following God through His Word, we learn, “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:6).” But what does this mean to us? How can we make this practical in helping our children through their schooling over which we have been given stewardship? It is a curious word, this word “acknowledge.” It means “to know,” “to learn to know,” “to perceive,” “to see,” “to find out,” “to discern,” “to distinguish,” “to know by experience,” “to recognize,” “to admit,” “to confess,” “to consider,” “to be acquainted in or with,” “to have know-how in or be skillful in,” “to have knowledge of or be wise of,” “to be instructed in,” “to be known in,” “to make known or declare,” or “to make oneself known or to reveal oneself in.” 

Now if we go back to this Proverbs 3:6 passage and re-read it by placing any or each of these definitions (to learn to know, to perceive, to see, etc.) where we read the term “acknowledge,” we can readily see the fuller meaning of this passage. We will do this shortly. 

The one thing that every Christian comes to the point of asking God, when they come to the point of wanting to do His will above their own, is, “What do you have planned for my life?” We are practical and searching people. We are taught, in this world, to make plans and set goals. We also pass this teaching on to our children. But, even if the plans we make are successful for a time, they are always doomed to eventual failure when they are different from those plans God has for us. This is true for the rocket scientist as well as for you and me. You probably are saying, “Great! How are we supposed to know what God has planned for us?” Proverb 3:6 and other verses in scripture reveals the answer to this question for us.

The major reason why “our ways” often do not match “His ways” is actually comprised of a couple reasons. One reason is that there is sin in the world and in us that causes us not to think correctly and that only leads us down wrong paths in life (Prov.14:12; 16:25). Psalm 48:14 tells us that “…for ever and ever: [God] will be our guide even unto death.” Another reason is that our understanding is so limited. God takes His position of supreme knowledge of all things, which is more knowledge than we can have at any time or level of our education (Isaiah 55:9). This is something that the secular humanists cannot understand. Let’s face it. If we knew more than God, about decisions for our life, then we would be God, Satan would be right, and God would be the deceiver. I assure you that none of these suppositions are true. In fact, this is the same mistaken idea that brought sin to all mankind, in the first place (Genesis 3:5). So, let’s not go that direction.

Instead of trusting what we ourselves think is the best for our children, we are commanded by God’s Word to trust Him to direct their paths. I know this is uncomfortable for us, as parents, however, this is the way the Creator would have it, and if we fight this, it will be a struggle for us. Acts 5:29 shows us that the apostles grew to understand that it was more important to obey God over what men tell us. We learn in Proverbs 3:5 that we must trust Him, and not just our own understanding. We see that the Apostle Paul said, “I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children, which God hath given me” (Hebrew 2:13). Paul, not having children, saw those put under his stewardship as his children. He realized that trusting God to direct him was also sufficient for those directed by him. In fact, if everything goes according to God’s will in our and our children’s plans, God will direct us completely. As the proverb goes, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.” (Proverbs 21:1) If it is good enough for kings, in charge of entire kingdoms, then it should also be good enough for those simply subject to The King of Kings.

A Foundation in the Knowledge of God

So, if we are really concerned that our children learn what will best prepare them for that life which God has ordained them, we should be prepared to provide a foundation for their receiving knowledge from that True Source. Now, we will look back once more at the various definitions for the word “acknowledge,” in Proverbs 3:6, to do the following:

• Teach our children “to know” God.

Let me just warn that, in not knowing God, though you have added Him in and to every subject that you teach, your children may essentially deny Him, be an abomination to Him, be disobedient to you and Him, and may grow to be reprobate in their thinking and their life work (Titus 1:16). I sincerely hope that is a troubling thought to you. 

When it comes to teaching our children to know God, He likes to do the teaching and, therefore, sent His Spirit to do this. Hebrews 8:11 shows us this where it says, “And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord:’ for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” Hosea 2:20 shows us how intimate this knowing is, by likening it to betrothal (a marriage). All in all, to know God is to love Him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength (Luke 10:20) and that does not leave much of their faculties for pursuit of other subjects or endeavors.

• Teach our children “to perceive” God.

Our children need to perceive when they are hearing words of understanding and when they are not (Proverbs 1:2). We see hints as to how they do this in the verses that follow verse 2 in Proverbs 1. They get this by receiving “instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity” (verse 3). This sounds like study in the books of Genesis, Deuteronomy, Judges, Proverbs, Songs of Solomon, the books of the Prophets, perhaps in the Acts of the Apostles, and I am sure I must just say the whole Bible. Otherwise, the best way to learn to perceive things of this world is to observe what God has to say about these things throughout history (His Story). Since there is absolutely “nothing new under the Sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), then studying history through the Bible is no less significant than the study of textbooks on history. The history of Israel is the history of the world, right up until the end. However, the object is not to teach children specifics, but to teach them to perceive from historical events the nature of lessons that have occurred where people and civilizations succeeded and failed. No better text exists for this purpose than the Bible, having God’s revealing commentary on man and civilization within its pages.

• Teach our children “to see” God.

To see actually means to learn about truth through observation. An essential thing we must make our children aware of in this life is that things in this world are not always what they appear to be. Now we do not have to have them study magic to realize this is true. The Word of God clearly states that it is in “the evidence of things not seen” that our children and we must find faith, substance, and real meaning (Hebrews 11:1). 2 Corinthians 4:18 goes on to emphasize that, “…we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” These passages not only point out that many things our children see are not reliable, but also help to accentuate the fact that the teaching of the spiritual (or unseen) side of life is more important to God than the mundane.

Of all the searching and research that man does in this world, what they hope to find out is answers about things that they do not yet know or understand. In fact, the wise men and leaders of our day, much the same as in the past, will desire “…to see those things which ye see…and to hear those things which ye hear (Luke 10:24). Yet, they will neither see nor hear them. The reason for this is that they do not, within the society in which we live, study scripture for knowledge of things. Ezekiel 12:2 points out that we “dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.” Those people, in this world, will always look upon those who see God as foolish and weak, however we learn in 1 Corinthians 1:27 that “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” This should be enough for us to realize that making studies of what the world can see, without God and His Word, is a foolish and somewhat vain act.

Another important aspect of “seeing God” is that of looking intently at Him. Through looking intently at God’s Word, with the carefulness which leads to discovery, your children will learn to be effective in analysis and their skill at this will surpass scholars in the fields of science, history, and other subjects of the day. While still at a very young age, I could tell that my daughter had a talent for drawing and perhaps painting. If there was one thing that I had learned about drawing, it was that to accurately transfer the image of an object on paper, without taking a photograph, the artist has to become a master at observation. Not only does the artist learn to observe special aspects of an object, but also the artist has to look so intently at what she is drawing that she can duplicate light and dark sections of black and white (for pencil) or color (for painting). In fact, it is not necessary to ever draw the shape of the object being drawn. All that is needed on the paper is the varying shades of light to dark that are seen. Once my daughter figured out how to do this, her drawing improved to the stage of excellence. She developed her sense of concentration through the study of the Word. In order to “see God,” you must look intently at the cross and what Christ did there.

• Teach our children “to find out” God.

There are many (I should say, “too many”) places today that a young person can “find out” information. There is all the world’s means, such as television, radio, the Internet, books, lectures by so-called scholars, their peers, and propaganda of all sorts. There is no doubt that they learn a bunch of things through these modes. But, most of this type of learning turns out to be learning for the sake of learning, void of concern for learning about God. Learning for the sake of learning, simply to look good to other people, just to have a tag that looks like success to the world around them, only serves to puff our children up (1 Corinthians 8:1). And, with this reasoning for learning everything that is in sight, comes a child that lives for praise, approbation, and accolades (which is truly no more than idols). The Apostle Paul tells us, in this same verse, that the result of knowledge should be fruit in charity, which edifies.

Proverb 1:5 hints to us the way our children should be taught to “find out” those useful things that will prosper them and be useful to them in living a life God has prepared for them, where it says, “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.” We are advised here, by the wisest of counselors, to teach our children to look for the answers in life from “wise counselors.” This shows why it is not wise to send our children off to college classrooms to be simply at the mercy of any so-called professor that is placed before them. The odds are that for every wise and Godly professor you will find teaching in a college (if in fact you do), there will be another few that are bent on teaching their own brand of subjects. Even the best group of professors will be teaching from the philosophical stance of the college by whom they are commissioned and will be limited by the textbooks available to the same.

We need to direct our children to counselors whom we have found to be tested in wisdom and good decisions in their life, teaching, and faith. Otherwise, we should not let them learn, outside the supervision of the home, at all, without our presence there. We should never allow them to be taught by television, radio, the Internet, books, lectures, or peers, without our having gone there first to discern the worth of these information sources.

Other than the saying, “The eyes are the windows to our soul,” 1 John 2:16 has wisdom for this, where it says, “…all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” But, the real advise on the concept of wise counsel comes from Proverbs 1:7-10 where is says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” Is it not clear here whom God put in place to teach your children? The way you get your children to listen to you is to get them first to listen to God, through His Word. Note here that one of the aspects of the Hebrew word “fear” is “fullness.” This is so as to suggest that when our children have fully exhausted their study of the Lord, this will be only the beginning of the wisdom available to them through the Lord’s Word. That puts them in “awe” and “reverence” of the Lord, which are two more meanings of the term “fear.”

• Teach our children “to discern” God.

Hebrews 5:14 tells us that “…strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” “Strong meat” here speaks of someone who has spent the time in the knowledge of the things of God long enough to be able to stomach and digest more easily what must be done to live life to its fullest, in Christ Jesus. The analogy is about learning and to a man who begins his life being fed information, as from a bottle, drinking milk and soft food until he is able to chew on and digest harder facts. This is how a Christian grows in the Lord after being “born again.”

The goal here is to be strong enough and sensitive enough to begin to discern, past the naive stage, the difference between good and evil in this world. This is not as easy as one might think, especially for someone who has, for a long time, been a child. It is an important goal for your children to become discerning and sensitive to their surroundings without having to become a part of them. They are called to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Ephesians 4:14 warns that our children must learn to “…be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” The word “sleight” in Greek is “kubeia” (pronounced koo-bi’-ah) which means “dice playing.” The Apostle Paul uses this word because dice players sometimes cheat and defraud their fellow players.

A curious meaning of the word “discern” is “to separate.” We are called to be separate from those things of this world that are not thought to be God or godly or pure. 2 Corinthians 6:14 tells us, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” We have to help our children to understand the importance of remaining separate from peer-aged individuals that are not saved, unless their intention is to lead them to the Lord. Another context of the word “discern” is “discriminate.” This is not popular today, in a world that now teaches “tolerance.” It is much more important for your children to discriminate than it is for them to tolerate everyone. It is much more important that they can discriminate between a good speaker and a bad speaker than it is to tolerate the words of everyone who speaks equally.

• Teach our children “to distinguish” God.

Many things have been mistaken for God, through the centuries and it is no different today, notwithstanding the subtlety of this age. In early Biblical times and in ancient times, people put up physical alters to both known and unknown gods and blatantly worshipped idols. God repeatedly told them how He felt about this, for example “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

In the present age, the worship of “other gods” is subtler and mostly hidden, even from the one whom is doing it. This is not usually because the one committing this error does not know or even believe this is wrong, but rather that they do not recognize the gods as gods. Otherwise, they have been desensitized to believe that these gods are something very common and acceptable in their life style. Jesus attempted to reveal this where He said, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). The key word in this passage is “hate.” This word is often misunderstood in the Bible. This word is defined as putting something or someone lower in importance or position than another. When we understand this word “hate,” in scripture, we see other passages with greater emphasis and understanding, such as in Luke 14:26 where Jesus says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” The word “hate” here is positional and asks, “Where does one place these things in relationship to God in their life?”

Therefore, the “other gods” in our children’s life can be anything on which or anyone in whom they place a higher importance or priority than God or His Word. Now, if we teach our children every subject the world has to offer and every fact, and they do not understand this point, then their whole life will still be a failure during which time they will be, perhaps unknowingly, struggling against the Creator. The consequence of this lack of understanding, of not recognizing God, is shown many places in scripture where God states, “…for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Deuteronomy 5:9).

Now, the gods we have, and place in more importance, are studying other materials as more important than learning His commandments and studying His Word. I have never met a man or woman that was not blessed that memorized and meditated on scripture, however, I have met many sad characters that are highly educated in the ways and skills of the world. We must teach our children to distinguish between what is important to their life, God, and to know when they are elevating other things as gods over Him. Satan is very subtle today and this is a spiritual battle for our children and us to distinguish what we cannot see. The Word of God and His Spirit can help us with this task, where textbooks cannot.

• Teach our children “to know [God] by experience.”

There is a popular study series called Experiencing God that is an intensive course in learning to abide in Him and His Will. As far as I am aware, this course does not have you to “experience God” through the study of textbooks on math, science, history, social studies, and geography. Though it is possible to see God in these subjects, it is just as possible, and probable, to arrive at the conclusion that there is no God, or at least one does not need Him as much, by the study of those books. The word Bible means “book.” The Bible (i.e., Scripture) was given to us by the Creator to teach us about Him. Most unsaved people, and actually many Christians, do not realize that the Bible is about Jesus Christ, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

It seems like the birth of Jesus Christ, spoken of in Matthew 1:1, is the first mention of Him in the Bible. However, in the first chapter of John, we see a revamp of the creation story, wherein Jesus, who is the Word of God, was there at the Creation of everything in the first chapter of Genesis. God introduced what would happen to, and because of, Jesus Christ, through the prophets, the most memorable being in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Early in the Old Testament, God reveals Jesus Christ through typology and inference. In the prophetic books, God tells what will happen to Jesus Christ and how He will fulfill His destiny and purpose according to God. In the New Testament, we get the opportunity, as no other people in history, to see how Jesus Christ has actually fulfilled nearly every prophecy that God made of Him. The Book of Revelation and the Gospels tell us of those prophecies still yet to come, pertaining to the last days or end times. There is absolutely no reason to believe that these future prophesies, as those that went before them, will not also be fulfilled in Christ.

Your children play an important part in God’s prophetic plan. God created them for a specific purpose and according to this plan. It tells us a curious and mysterious thing in Luke 2:21 where we read, “…his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Just as God knew who Jesus was and what His purpose would be before He was in His mother’s womb, so did He know the same about your children (Psalm 139:13; Jeremiah 1:5; Romans 8:29). We can see how our children can be a part of God’s plan in Luke 1:17 by preparation, where it is said, “…He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

For this preparation to be according to God’s plan, the purpose for which God created our children must be determined. It is not impossible to do this. It comes through their experiencing God. As our children experience God, they learn both what doors are opened or closed to them and what things they find joy in and what things they don’t. The first one is a determination of God’s will and the second is a determination of what qualities God built into them (also known as their “bent”). In Nehemiah 9:12,19, it says that God directed His children in the “way they should go” by the means of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire (a light) by night. The way they should go was the way that God had planned for them to go. God had not changed by the time He inspired the words “Train up a child in the way he should go” in Proverbs 22:6. Still here, the words “the way he should go” mean the way that God planned for him or her to go. God not only has made plans, before they were in the womb, about the ways they should go, but He also built into them the way they should go. If they do not go that way, they will struggle in life, just as the Israelites did when they did likewise. Through study of God’s Word, He will show our children His plan for them.

Now we know why we might struggle to teach our children, with the plans we make for them. Our plans are not God’s plan. We are no more than tutors that must prepare the hearts of our children to seek after what God wants and plans for them. This is the best we can do for them and for God. We can glean the consequence of this preparation, or lack thereof, with God in 2 Chronicles 12:14 where it tells us that Rehoboam “…did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.” We also see that other circumstances are the result of the same lack of preparedness in 2 Chronicle 20:33 where we read, “Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.” We must make it our aim to prepare our children’s hearts to experience God’s design and purpose for them (not ours).

• Teach our children “to recognize” God.

Can our children, or we for that matter, recognize God? The word “recognize” has an unexpected meaning here. It means to avow knowledge of or recollect having seen someone or something before. This reminds me of what happened to the Apostle Peter when he disavowed knowledge of Jesus after His arrest. Some people today refuse to be equated with Christ, when they are at work or find themselves in a social scenario (in public). We must teach our children not to be ashamed to recognize Jesus Christ and the Gospel message, in that their relationship with Him is the most important thing in the world and that the message of the Gospel is a lifesaver to those who would otherwise be destined to hell for eternity (Romans 1:16; 5:5; 2 Tim. 1:12).

• Teach our children “to admit” God.

To “admit” someone or something is essentially to receive it as true and allow it entrance into your mind. One of the crucial problems with using too many books with or aside from the Bible is that our children have a choice in this life. When the foundation of their education is other-book based, then they are made to choose whether the Bible is the truth based upon the conjecture of teachings and philosophies other than the Creator. However, when their foundation for information is the Bible, then our children still must make a choice. They will already be based in God’s Word, but will have to decide and discern whether or not the information read in other books is the truth. What people admit nearly always coincides with the basis for their knowledge.

God shows us in Luke 6:49 how a man can admit a weak foundation, where He explains, “…he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.” There is but one solid foundation for learning and that is the Word, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11).

• Teach our children “to confess” God.

There are several unexpected aspects to confessing God. These things cannot generally be found in a textbook. In its most primitive form, it means to use God, such as by holding out ones hand, or by begging things from Him. However, I am looking here at a different meaning, which shows a picture of one holding out both hands (extended hands) to revere or worship God intensively, and to receive Him with much thanksgiving.

There is a direct promise of Jesus Christ, in Matthew 10:32, that expresses, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.” Confessing God before men comes from loving God and His Word. We can only help our children to desire this through reading and meditating on God’s Word, wherein it expresses the totality of what God has done for them. Where else can our children glean this information and what a loss they will incur not having occasioned to study about this from the true source of His Word? In fact, the very courage to confess or tell people about God is found in studying the true lives of people who lived for that very purpose, having known Him first hand. If our children are saved, by hearing the Word, then they are required to “…confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus” (Romans 10:9). Our children are required of God to confess for their selves or acknowledge God, especially before men and in their own hearts.

• Teach our children “to consider” God.

To consider God has many facets. To consider Him is to fix ones mind on Him with a view toward careful examination. It means to ponder, study, and meditate on God. Since the Bible tells us in the first chapter of John, that “the Word is God” and Jesus is the Word incarnate, then doesn’t it stand to reason that pondering, studying, and meditating on the Word of God is doing this to Them? What other book can better be used, I ask you, to ponder God and Jesus than the Bible? To consider also has an equivalent meaning as to “consult.” There would be no better study for a student then the Bible, if they were preparing to be a counselor or consultant.

I used to believe that in researching the various aspects of human behavior there could be no greater source than Shakespeare. I wondered how one man could have such a vast knowledge and insight into the human makeup and character of men and women. But, having studied Shakespeare with an English degree, and having read everything that he wrote, sometime later, I was examining a reliable biography of Shakespeare. I learned one strong clue as to how he knew all these things about humans. He studied the Bible. Researchers discovered his private copy of the Bible (in the King James, of course), which showed deep study and concern with its content, from the intense notes he left in its margins. Shakespeare consulted the Word of God.

Shakespeare had little else to study, in his time, and needed little else, in that the Creator knew His creation in much greater depth than Freud, who came much latter, could have ever hoped of gleaning. When you learn something, nothing is better than learning from a [M]aster.

• Teach our children “to be acquainted in or with” God.

To “acquaint” oneself with God, would mean to gain an intimate or particular knowledge of Him. This indicates knowledge of God that is more than slight or superficial. Job 22:21 tells us “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.” This word “acquaint” actually has the same root as the term “cunning.” The word “cunning,” in turn, has to do with “understanding” (2 Chron. 2:13). Overall it leads to the term “intelligence.” All these qualities are established in the person who spends his or her days in scripture study and becomes deeply and richly acquainted with the Word of God.

• Teach our children “to have know-how in or be skillful in” God.

I became familiar with this idea of becoming skillful in tasks without having prior learning or knowledge of them, after reading about the abilities that the so-called “skilled” men and women of David’s temple had acquired. It wasn’t so much that they were called artisans and could do such wonderful work, as the fact that they received total and almost instant knowledge of these skills from the Spirit of God (1 Chronicles 28:11-12; Ezra 1:5; Acts 2:4). This idea was brought to my attention more than once in my own experience.

For example, I had an apartment beneath my home, wherein the air conditioning unit went out. I had no clue as to what might be the cause, had no money to call an electrician, and had a brand new tenant staring at it with me in puzzlement. As I went to ponder over what I would or could do, I remembered how God had readily given Solomon wisdom, when he prayed. I needed some then, so I went and knelt down by my bed and told the Lord I do not have the money to fix this air conditioner and that I did not know what I could do to fix it. I prayed that He would give me wisdom about how to fix it and would provide the money miraculously, if it came to cost very much.

I got back up and grabbed some tools and went down and took off the cover and saw a small box around the switch area of the unit. I unplugged the unit and carefully unscrewed the plate behind it that covered the wiring. There were just two switchboxes. But, for some reason, I just lifted up the switch box and noticed right away that there was what appeared to be a burnt wire at the connection near the middle of the switch. I looked behind the switch where the burnt connector was and saw the wire end. Next, I drove to the hardware store, not really knowing what to buy or if I could fix it. I talked to the hardware store clerk. He told me he did not have the connector I would need, so I asked where I could find one. He said the air conditioning place down the road. I went down there and the man there looked at it and got me a connector that went on the end of the wire. He literally gave it to me. I went back to the apartment, stripped off the end of the wire, stuck it in the connector end and crimped it down on the wire end. I pushed the connector over the prong that was previously burnt, after cleaning off the burnt part. I plugged the unit back in and switched it on and it worked again. Now, would you believe me if I told you that I did not know how to do what I did? God not only gave me the know-how, but He made it so that it did not cost me anything to repair it. There are many other true stories like this and better.

• Teach our children “to have knowledge of or be wise about” God.

Often I have thought that it would be an interesting and useful study to research the Bible and write a book about the nature of God. It has been said that, “The Devil cannot know what you are thinking, however he can learn a great deal about your likes, dislikes, fears, feelings, and other things by just watching you.” So, I ask you, “Why isn’t it the same with what we are able to know about God?” The truth is that we have a great deal of things we can gather about the nature of God, His likes, dislikes, and so on, from the books of the Bible.

It is real important that our children learn a great deal about God. This is not only pleasing to Him, but it shows that they love Him. After all, how can they “…love the Lord [their] God with all [their] heart, and with all [their] soul, and with all [their] mind” (Matt. 22:37), if they do not know Him intimately? Our children need to be a walking encyclopedia of God and be able to witness of Him to others. The fact is, in knowing Jesus this same way we are able to know God (John 14:9). Observing Jesus through scriptures is necessary, because Christian children are called to be like Jesus. This is God’s goal.

• Teach our children “to be instructed in” God.

We see in Acts 18:25 where a man named Apollos “… was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.” Going back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 again, we see how it is our duty as Christians to instruct our children in the ways of the Lord at all times of the day. They must be taught (Isaiah 54:13). We have also discussed here how it is important that this study be the main thrust of their life and not just a thing done on Sundays.

It is still a curious thing to me how our children can be instructed by the Holy Spirit within them, so that, as it is stated in Hebrews 8:10-11 that “they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” This infers that knowledge of God might even go without teaching, in the minds our children. God might just put it in their knowledge through His Spirit.

Every bit of what we have to teach our children must be filtered through knowledge of God and His Word. In fact, it is true, beyond a doubt, that every subject we teach must at least have its foundation in the absolute Bible (the Word of God).

• Teach our children “to be known in” God.

As I have spent a good deal of the time expressing how all the knowledge our children need will come from God and His Word, Romans 1:19 expresses from whence even knowledge of Him comes revealing “…that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” So we see that God has this special ability to put within them understanding or “knowledge of Him” whereby they may know Him. In the very next verse, God says, through the Apostle Paul, they have no excuse for not knowing Him.

Our children must come to an understanding that their life “…is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3), however, they “…are the light of the world [, and] a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Matt. 5:14). It is our children’s call to be known in God. People should look upon them and see something unusual and brilliant in their countenance and example. They should be a breath of fresh air to those around them – a source of light. This happened to Moses, after he had come down from mount Sinai and had spoken with God. After he had received the Word of God, “the skin of his face shone” (Exodus 34:29). Now, this was the result of receiving God’s Word directly and could not have happened as the result of receiving any other word or book. The fact is, like no other word, God’s Word is able to live within our children (Philippians 2:16; 1 John 1:1). 

• Teach our children “to make known or declare” God.

One of the key responsibilities that we have as parents is to teach our children to testify of Christ and to witness to others. The best way to reveal the entire scope of this activity is to expose them to people in the Bible who did. This is because of the intense investment of life and sacrifice, action and results, as well as devotion and consequence of their revealing Christ.

1 Chronicles 16:24 tells us that it is God’s desire to “declare His glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations.” Should we think that he does not want our children to do the same? We read in Psalm 22:30-31 that “a seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.” This seed could very well be us, and this people that shall be born could very well be our children and theirs. Is it more important to pass on knowledge of school subjects or knowledge of God from His Word? We should think before we answer this question.

• Teach our children “to make oneself known or to reveal oneself in” God.

It only took Daniel’s knowledge of God to make a king say, “Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret” (Daniel 2:47). As Christians, the mind of Christ in us can reveal much of the wisdom of God (Matthew 11:27). There is no other method of acquiring such knowledge in the entire world. The Apostle Paul puts it this way, in Galatians 1:16: “To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” This is to say, he did not ask for the wise men of this world to teach him about such things. In fact, the only way we will ever be persuaded to leave what we hold that is not the truth is for God to tell us. No man knows more than what God can tell us.

1 John 2:27 tells us, “…the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” We cannot trust any materials written merely by men or women to teach our children the absolute, live-by-it truth except the Word of God. The crux of the matter is that they must use this method so as to be able to abide in Him. The Christian life, we must prepare them for, is established for this purpose and His Word speaks to them explaining, “…now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).

Once again, I hope I have given you ample understanding through deliberating on the word “acknowledge” in Proverbs 3:6. You can at least see the need to absorb your children in His Word and how little of life’s real meaningful things can be learned by other means. There are words to a popular hymn that say “Little is much when God is in it.” I would like to also express the converse to this, which would be when God’s Word is used in the teaching process, very much is in it. When you study a book, you read a sentence and you might get more out of it once or twice reading it, but eventually, the additional meanings come to an end. However, when you read God’s Word, I do not believe that fresh meanings of the same passage ever come to an end. This is due to the fact that, unlike the words of other books, written merely by men, the Word of God is living – its words are like a well that never runs dry (John 4:10-14).