Thoughts on Deuteronomy 11 (part 2.2)
“You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
We’ve seen these passages before, in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. What did I write back then?
- Real Love remembers – Jan 6, 2016
Wow. It’s taken me a year to get through 5 chapters of Deuteronomy…
Sadly, although I understood then what needed to be done and had some good ideas and good intentions, I never defined actual steps/actions that I would do..
Part of the fear of writing down my thoughts and the actions I will do is that it sets me up for potential disappointment if (when?) I fail. Like how I feel right now. But if I don’t write it down there’s no way to keep myself accountable to anyone. So here it is.
- Sitting: During mealtimes, we can start a family tradition / habit. Something fun and meaningful to add to our prayer before meals. Should be prioritized over TV or other forms of entertainment. I need to get ideas for this.
- Walking: The only time we can have a good conversation while “walking” is when we are inside the car. We noticed early on that Nate enjoys music (like his dad). So, trying to be a cool dad, I would play the Beatles as our soundtrack when we would go on trips. It’s lots of fun, singing along with him. We cannot deny that the Beatles were very creative – musically as well as lyrically. However, what were the lyrics? Good thing Nicole started playing Christian songs at home, and that Nate’s developed a couple of favorites. Now we play Christian songs during our trips. This should suffice for now.
- Lie down: Oh yeah, we got one out of four, woohoo! It’s such a blessing to have started this, I don’t know how it happened. Now it’s part of our nighttime routine to have Bible Story time. We started with the Children’s Bible, and now we’re doing Goodnight Warrior. I look forward to this time with Nate everyday.
- Rise: This may be a challenge since we don’t always wake up at the same time. If I’m still at home when my kids wake up, I can lead a prayer and/or reading of an encouraging verse.
Bottomline: Increase interactions, refocus topics, build an encouraging environment.