Parents have not failed in educating their children; they have passed – passed on, that is. Parents frequently pass on their educational responsibility to others. Parents far too often abdicate their parental responsibility to train their children. We often leave it to the school, the church and even the television to prepare the next generation for the next generation. How sad, given God’s explicit direction in the most memorable statement on education in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 9 says, “Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
The primary responsibility for training the children lies with parents and even more specifically with fathers. God clearly assigns the lead to fathers when He says “[keep] all [the] statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson” (6: 2). The continuity of consecrated communication was from father to son and son to grandson with the cycle being repeated continuously through the ages. The Old Testament could be subtitled “The Failure of Fathers” because most of Israel’s woes were due to the unwillingness or inability of fathers to transfer the Truth to the next generation.
This is a tough assignment. We are not to content ourselves with believing our training is done when the facts have been learned. God demands that we “Impress these words…on [our] hearts and souls (11: 18). Teaching is more than simply informing minds. True teaching inspires hearts to love the same God we love in the same way we love Him. Not until our children have a passion for God in their hearts have we completed our assignment.
The Christian school or Sunday school should never be counted on to replace moms and dads in providing spiritual training. These and numerous other ministries have a complementary but never competitive role in educating children in God’s Truth. Fundamentally and ultimately, the responsibility for teaching children belongs to the parent or parents.
As Christian parents we must not pass on the responsibility of education to others. Instead we must pass on the Truth to others, that is to our children. When they too “[l]ove the LORD…with all [their] heart…soul, and…strength (6: 5) then we can genuinely claim a passing grade as parents.