As a kid, I remember drilling multiplication facts in my
head – I worked everyday trying to memorize these facts and learn any tricks
that would help them to stay with me. All of us
still know and probably sing the “ABC song” in our heads when we are alphabetizing. How many times do you quote, “I before e,
except after c” when we are writing? As
parents, we are pouring as much information into our kids as we possibly can to
help them later in life. As Christian
parents, we add Bible verses and principles to this plethora of information we
are stockpiling. One of the greatest
gifts God gives children is the ability to learn, almost by absorption. It is
almost as if kids can just take in new information like a sponge and retain it
for a lifetime. So, why as parents and
churches, would we spend all of this valuable time pouring in only
multiplication tables and simple, watered-down truths when they are capable of
learning and retaining so much more?
We have been working through different difficulty/detail
levels of the Westminister Shorter Catechism with our boys since they were 2-3
years old. We began with a story book
style (such as Simple Truths for Young Hearts), simple answer form of
the catechism to allow them to grab basic truths of doctrine and its
importance. Now that our boys are a
little older, we are working through Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by
Starr Meade and we are filling in more detail and more valuable information
around the truths they learned at such an early age. We take just one to two questions/answers per
week and we review the purpose of the doctrine, what it means and they memorize
the answers. The great part of this
resource is that if you are not already working through a family worship
resource with your family, this book gives you outstanding daily devotions for
use with your pre-teens and teens. We
have a limited amount of time to “pour in” what they will need for the rest of
their lives. The Lord has given us this
calling as parents and churches, and we are to maximize our time. I want to encourage parents at TBC to take a
serious look at spending some time catechizing and explaining correct doctrine
with our children.
