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Today’s reading is called the Shema. Shema is the Hebrew word hear, the first word that begins this passage. This is the parenting assessment. The Shema is a confession of faith recited every day by pious Jews and every Sabbath in the synagogues. Over the next few days, let’s use these powerful verses as a parenting assessment. Read the passage, and then we’ll start with two questions.

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.

Here are two questions for today.

Is the Lord your God?

A relationship with God is not dependent on the completion of a CCD or confirmation class. A personal relationship with the living God did not begin at your first communion or baptism. We cannot earn a relationship with God by our worth or our good works. A relationship with God takes place only when you realize your helpless state and your desperate need for a Savior. Have you trusted in Jesus alone as the only way to have a relationship with God?

Is the Lord your only God?

What drives you? Really? Where do you spend your money? Where do you spend your time? We all need to be aware of the little “gods” in our lives. God does not accept competition. The Lord God must be your one and only.

Father, help us to see ourselves for who we really are. Help us to see what drives us. Show us whom we truly serve. Show us our hearts and help us follow hard after you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.