The Best Parents (Teachers) Are Good Students

If you are a parent, you are a teacher.  You teach your children to eat, speak, read, and walk. You teach your children how to get dressed, tie their shoes, and use the bathroom. You teach them how to throw or hit a ball. You teach your children how to cook or bake, do laundry, mow the lawn, plant and weed a garden, drive and take care of a car, or fix things around the house.

But most important, you teach them God’s Word.  Psalm 78:5,6 reminds us of that: “[The Lord] decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. In the next verse we see the goal of faithful instruction of children in the Word of God: “Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.” (Psalm 78:7)

You and I are to teach our children the Word of God so they can know that the true God is their Friend and Savior Jesus Christ, and trust him through all the challenges, hardships, disappointments, and heartaches of life, and especially for the forgiveness of their sins and their eternal salvation.  We are to instruct our kids in the Word of God so that they can know what is true and right and what is not in this world.  From God’s Word we are to teach them how to live a life that pleases God and is for our own good, out of love and thanks for all that he has done and keeps doing for us in Jesus Christ.  We are to teach our children all these things by our words and also by our example.

Do you need help with that teaching?  Me too.  I’m not very good at it, being the sinner I am.  So how can we become better teachers of the Word for the building up of our children’s faith and godly character?   It’s simple: Become a better student of the Word of God.  Be like Ezra, who is described as both a teacher and a student in Ezra 7:10. “Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.”  Luther endorsed the pattern Ezra set for us, saying, “You should diligently study the Word of God and by no means imagine that you know it.  I do not want to let the mildew of the notion grow that I know [the Scriptures] well enough.” (Luther’s Works, Erlangen edition, volume 17, p. 369)

The many Bible classes offered at church, the daily email devotions we send or that are offered via the WELS, the Meditations devotional booklet with suggested daily Bible readings, a good study Bible like the Concordia Self-Study Bible, are all excellent ways or tools you can use to help you study of God’s Word and be enlightened and empowered to be a faithful teacher of your children.

Make it your goal to become a devoted student of the Word so you can be the best parent (teacher) you can be!