I've been contemplating the verses from Ecclesiates
that I posted yesterday. Especially I have been
thinking of 12:1a:

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,...

There is a laxness in our approach to training our
children in the ways of the Lord that we would never
allow in other areas of training.

We are very deliberate in potty training our little ones
and teaching them to wash their hands. We do not leave
bike riding, swimming, or hunting up to chance. These
activities are broken into steps and carefully we go
through each one.

Schooling, whether it is home, government, or private is
very deliberate. There are goals; there is an agenda;
there is method. But spiritual training is often very
haphazard. We breathe a sigh of relief if our kids "go
forward" or "make a profession" and then, often, we are
unsure of what else to do and so leave it at that. Of
course, if they have questions we try to answer them.
But we don't know how to do as Deuteronomy 6:6&7 tell us
to do:

And these words which I command you today shall be in
your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your
children....

I don't just want my kids to be able to look back at
some point in time when they accepted Christ into their
hearts and count on that to be everything for them. I
want to see today the fruit of that decision. I want
to see tomorrow and next week and next year that the
way in which they walk is a result of their change of
heart when they were young. I don't want all their
learning to be merely a result of having their questions
answered. They are but children. What is to make them
ask the right questions?

That is one reason that I so highly recommend catechism
study along with regular family devotions. These are
deliberate. They don't leave learning to chance. They
help the child to gain a full picture perspective.

My book of choice for this is Teaching Hearts: Training
Minds by Starr Meade. This book takes the Westminster
Confession and after each question and answer gives six
days of devotions to bring about greater understanding.
I have seen my children grow in the depth and width of
their knowledge of God and His ways.

Life is but a preparation for eternity for the believer.
We have taught our children everything from their abcs to
calculus and physics. How can I neglect, or leave only to
others this most important area of all.

When the difficult days come to them, as they will, I want
their knowledge and experience of God's faithfulness and
glory to be the scaffolding upon which they stand. May
they be able to say, along with Job, "Though He slay me,
yet will I trust Him." (13:15)