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The responsibility of parenting cannot be delegated. The youth group, private school, or Christian school cannot impart the deep truths of the faith to your children. Sure, each plays a part, but parenting is for parents. There are things your children will not hear unless they hear them from you.

Today’s portion of the Shema (Hebrew for “hear”) reminds parents that their responsibility goes far beyond bedtime prayers or breakfast devotions. The instruction of Scripture is 24/7.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel: The Lord 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. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God’s Word should be woven into conversation throughout the day. Spiritual truth should be taught on the ride to school and sports practices. Prayer and biblical principles should be imparted in the evening and the morning. After God’s Word penetrates our hearts, it will permeate our homes.

The best conversations with my children did not come during bedside prayers or our family devotional time on Sunday evenings. The best times took place on the way to Starbucks, on road trips to Oklahoma, sitting on our front porch in the evening, or on the way to a sporting event. God’s Word is pervasive. Don’t try to keep it in a box!

Father, may we be both students and teachers of your Word. Don’t let us be so busy or preoccupied that we miss those teaching moments you hand us as precious gifts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.