A Firm Foundation

I just read the daily devotional I receive via email each day from Our Daily Bread. The devotional, and the story about the little girl and the cars made me realize that I need to start laying a firm foundation now, even though Z is only a year old.

Here is the devotional:
These words which I command you . . . you shall teach them diligently to your children. —Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Before she was 2 years old, my granddaughter Katie did something that would make any grandpa proud: She began to recognize cars by make and year. This all started when she and her daddy began spending time together playing with his old collection of toy cars. Daddy would say, “Katie, get the 1957 Chevy,” and she would pick it out of the hundreds of tiny cars. And once, while he was reading a Curious George book to her, she climbed down from his lap and ran to get a miniature Rolls Royce—an exact replica of the car pictured in the book.

If a 2-year-old child can make such connections, doesn’t that show the importance of teaching children the right things early on? We can do this by using what I call the FIRM principle: Familiarity, Interest, Recognition, and Modeling. This follows Moses’ pattern in Deuteronomy 6 of taking every opportunity to teach biblical truths so that children become familiar with them and make them a part of their lives. Using their interests as teaching opportunities, we repeat Bible stories so they become recognizable, while modeling a godly life before them.

Let’s give the children in our lives a FIRM foundation by teaching them about God’s love, Christ’s salvation, and the importance of godly living. —Dave Branon

O give us homes built firm upon the Savior,
Where Christ is Head and Counselor and Guide,
Where every child is taught His love and favor
And gives his heart to Christ, the crucified. —Hart