Parents and Christian Education

There's no better time than the beginning of the school year to think about the role that parents play in the education of their children. The classic Lutheran understanding is that the parents are responsible for the education of their children. The school is there to help, but the responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the parents.

This is also the case for their spiritual education.

Our Lutheran School, Sunday School, and church are all ways in which children learn the things of God, but is is primarily the responsibility of parents (and specifically fathers) to instruct their children in the things of God.

• This happens by what we say to our children.  
• This happens by the examples we set for our children.
• This happens by the things we show that we value by what we choose to be a part.
• This happens by the things we show that we value by involving our children in them.

Teaching children the things of God isn't optional, but the primary responsibility of parents.
 
"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. "And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
(Deu 6:4-13)

What are some ways to do this?

• Put on Christian music as you drive to school.
• Pray with your child before they head off to school for the day.
• Send a note of encouragement with a verse of Scripture in their lunch box.
• Begin/continue family devotions each day.  Right after dinner or right before bed time are usually the best times to be able to do this consistently. 
• Set an example by regular attendance of church and Bible class.

And I'm sure we could go on, but that's a good start.
As your children get back to school, don't let it be a time for you to stop instructing them in the home, but see it as a chance to take up the God given responsibility and privilege of parenting.