By Pastor Joseph Urbina, Jr.

Last year, my wife showed me an old devotional. It was the kind that, in one page, gives you an inspiring thought for the day along with a simple life lesson.

One of those pages convicted me greatly. It was about time and money spent on our children.

According to the statistics I read there, Americans spend $24 billion each year on their children, a great portion of which is not for basic essentials, and that the Wall Street Journal reports that most 11-year-olds in this country have their own television and choose their own shows.

So, here are the big questions: Do parents indulge their children in order to buy their love because they don’t take time to be with them? And, is it not important to sit down regularly with our children and focus on teaching them God’s Word?

Well, of course we know the answer to those questions. But we also know that our lives are busy, and that training our kids up in the Bible takes time and effort.

But if we are to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3), then we must certainly begin with our children. Clearly, we won’t achieve this goal by giving them money in lieu of our time.

The devotional highlighted parents spending money on their children in order to feel justified in not spending time with them. This disturbed me, since I have fallen into that category in the past.

The rub comes in that money cannot buy our children’s souls. It cannot achieve the most worthy goal of imparting to them our godly heritage.

In Psalm 78:1-8, King David’s chief musician, Asaph, talks about how that heritage is to be passed on to the next generation:

“Give ear, O my people, to my law; let your ears be bent down to the words of my mouth. Opening my mouth, I will give out a story, even the dark sayings of old times, which have come to our hearing and our knowledge, as they were given to us by our fathers. We will not keep them secret from our children; we will make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has done. He put up a witness in Jacob, and made a law in Israel, which he gave to our fathers so that they might give knowledge of them to their children; So that the generation to come might have knowledge of them, even the children of the future, who would give word of them to their children – so that they might put their hope in God, and not let God's works go out of their minds, but keep his laws, and not be like their fathers, a stiff-necked and uncontrolled generation; a generation whose heart was hard, whose spirit was not true to God.”

Here Asaph sheds light on God’s heart concerning the future of His people, and raises some questions as to why it’s important for parents to invest time in their children’s upbringing.

How should this be accomplished? What are the benefits to this endeavor? Why should this matter to a parent?

Asaph saw something that came from God; something that should spring up in the hearts of our children for the benefit of future generations: Namely, words.

The testimony of the Lord in the history of His people and the consequences of their ancestors rejecting God’s words. If telling these testimonies is so important, why don’t we do it?

Because it takes time, and we are tired.

In Psalm 19, King David declares that we need only to look at the physical creation to know there is an all-powerful Creator. He goes on to tell of what is more to be desired than much fine gold: God’s perfect Law and His testimony which makes the simple wise.

Human beings need words and someone to teach us the way. Psalm 78 challenges the listener to know History and to learn about God’s role in it.

For football aficionados, Tom Brady is an icon. He has won seven Super Bowl rings in 19 years. People will celebrate this accomplishment and honor his sports prowess for years to come.

But God’s track record is so much more glorious. Why? Because it’s magnificent and eternal.

He was never a rookie and He will never retire. His works endure from generation to generation. Even before there was man, He divided the light from darkness; separated the waters from the waters (thus creating a life-sustaining atmosphere) and separated the land from the waters to create a place where life in all its forms can thrive.

He is the only One who determined the precise amount of matter in the Universe: not too small a quantity or too large that the worlds and stars cannot exist. It is enough for these processes to continue along with gravity, electricity, electromagnetism, fission, fusion, and the ether.

He created Paradise and put man in it. His heart is always for us!

Do we take the time to teach our children about the character of God, to tell them God is love and has a plan for their lives?

I find it interesting that when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5-10, His nature is contrary to most people’s expectations of an angry Old Testament God. The Lord makes it quite clear that He wants Moses to know His true character and pass it on to future generations: “Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’ So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.”

This is how Asaph wanted children to know God, and he tells parents to model righteous living before them; to flood the airwaves of their homes, literally, with the testimony of the Lord.

Before we dream of taking God’s Word to strange foreign lands, we need to open our eyes to the mission field in our own homes! Jesus said, “Let the little ones come to me, and do not keep them away: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” This is the heart of the Father.

Deuteronomy 6:5-6 says: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

That word diligently translates as a repeated piercing process, like getting a tattoo. It penetrates a bit at a time. It requires ongoing impact and patience. Jews recite this prayer, the Sh’mah, twice a day. If the command to teach our children diligently is so important, why don’t we do it?

Because it takes time, and we’re tired.

Of all the earthly endeavors to which we may dedicate our time and effort – even when we are tired – this is one of the most vital. The Scriptures answer our objections:

Training takes time. “If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is old he will not be turned away from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

Training takes perseverance. “The Lord corrects everyone he loves, just as parents correct their favorite child” (Proverbs 3:12).

Discipline takes effort. “You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

Being fair takes wisdom. “Parents, don't be hard on your children. Raise them properly. Teach them and instruct them about the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

Managing a family takes diligence. “The men who are special servants must be faithful in marriage. They must be good leaders of children and their own families” (1 Timothy 3:12). 

Granted, giving out money to your child is far easier than training him. But Psalm 78:4 reveals three great benefits that come from investing yourself in your child:

First, the knowledge of the truth will be perpetuated (verse 4).

Second, our children will put their hope in God (verse 7).

Third, they will be better than their fathers (verse 8).

In other words, as we obey God’s Word and pass His Truth on to our children, a chain of blessed generations will come to life! Because there will be a real generational transference – not of opinions, fables, conjectures, theories, or foolish old wives’ tales, but of The Faith!

God’s Truth will work in our children so that they don’t have to be bound like their ancestors, who departed from their God and had nothing to show for it but grief.

Our children need our time with them. They need to be saturated with God’s testimony, first in our lives and then in their own. This is what it means to contend for the faith in our homes.

The time and effort we spend in seeing our faith in God transmitted to the next generation is time and effort well spent, and it will be rewarded by seeing blessings on our future generations walking in the light and not in darkness.