They were so proud to inform me of all this information they knew. After they "impressed" me with their knowledge of basketball, I said, "Now, can you name the 12 disciples?" Silence. No one was trying to out do the other. In fact, I couldn't even get a "guess" for a couple of minutes. Finally, one shouted, "Mary?" The other one said, "Sheep?"
It may sound humorous, but it really made an impact on me. These are not just little boys who never go to church. They are raised in Christian homes and attend church regularly. It's true that we take the time to learn and memorize what we are interested in and what we are exposed to the most.
And right now for those little boys, it's basketball. Now, obviously, they see basketball on a wider scale on television, tennis shoes, athletic clothing, etc. So, it's up to us, the family, to teach our children the basics of the Bible, and make it as interesting to them as basketball is. Where else will they learn it?
The world has changed so much from when I was a little girl. The forms of entertainment and quality time with our families have changed drastically. I, for one, think it's sad.
When I was a young girl, my dad would take my sister and me outside and point to the different birds and tell us the name of the bird and how it builds its nest. We would go outside day after day to watch that mother bird care for her babies until eventually, they began to learn to fly on their own.
Daddy would teach us how to plant a garden, gather up the harvest, and then get it ready to be cooked. We would sit around talking and shelling peas until we had filled a bucket full of purple hule peas. My mother would teach us all the different names of flowers and how to plant them. We learned to appreciate nature and the simple things in life.
Now, it appears as though most children never learn these precious things about life. Instead, they spend most of their afternoons indoors playing video games. I'm not saying that video games are wrong. I'm simply saying that I am old fashioned. I believe that we need to spend more quality time with our children teaching them the basics of life, as well as the basics of the Word of God.
If they can contain a wealth of information about the NBA players, then they can learn the life of Jesus. He's just one person, but He's the One who died for them and gave them eternal life.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't allow your children to watch a basketball game on television, I just think that it would be beneficial to their lives if they were spending equal time learning something new about the Word of God.
I didn't stop my daughters from listening to the current music on the radio, but I did expect them to give equal time to Christian music.
My daughter, Terri, who recently had a baby girl, told me that every night when she puts Kassidi to sleep, she rocks her in the rocking chair singing songs about Jesus, instead of the traditional lullabyes such as, "Rock-a-bye baby."
She wants Jesus to be the last thing she hears her mother speaking about before she goes to sleep. She's teaching that baby the importance of Jesus at an early age.
I encourage you to simply be old fashioned! Go back and teach your children the simple pleasures of life. Have your children watch a spider as it slowly makes its web layer by layer. Take your family on a picnic one Saturday afternoon.
Begin waking up an hour earlier each morning and have the family sit down at the breakfast table, rather than grabbing a doughnut as they run out the door, and then share a scripture from the Word of God. Just one encouraging scripture from the Word can make a difference in their whole day.
It's very important that while you're endeavoring to do this, you do not force the Word on your children and cause them to run from it or dread this "quality" time with you. Think of ways to make learning the Word interesting and fun. And most of all, strive to spend equal time with God as you do with other important things in your life.
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