They Call Me Dad by Ken Canfield

Author:Ken Canfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Books

When I’m teaching fifteen boys in a fourth-grade Sunday school class at our church, I often ask so-called Bible trivia questions, such as, what’s the fifth commandment? Or, who was Moses’s father-in-law? These may seem simple, but your children need this kind of knowledge if they are going to outthink the world. When kids know those stories and the truths behind them, they can apply biblical truth to real-life situations and even communicate it to others. When they have internalized God’s Word, they will have the mind of Christ, as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 2:16: “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” (emphasis added).

Here is an example: My oldest daughter, Hannah, has the gift of evangelism, and she used that gift effectively during her years at the university. God led her to join and live in a sorority and share the love of Christ with her sorority sisters. One night, when a group of girls had gathered for a chapter meeting, someone put on a video showing explicit and disgusting adult material—and many of the girls were making equally shocking comments. Hannah got up and left the room, and two younger girls followed her. They asked Hannah what was going on, and she told them why she was outraged. Then she added, “That video that someone slipped in at the chapter meeting is like Sodom and Gomorrah, and we have to cut that kind of stuff out of our house’s tradition.”

One of the girls looked puzzled. “Hannah, what’s Sodom and Gomorrah?” She didn’t know the biblical story and the meaning it carries as a reference to unrestrained sexual behavior. So, right then and there, Hannah gave a little sorority-house Sunday school lesson. When she was finished, one girl asked, “You mean God wiped out cities because they were involved in that type of activity?”

Hannah took the opportunity to talk about why it is critical to stay pure and holy, even during the collegiate years. She then challenged her sisters to take a hard look at whether their own choices were pleasing to God. Over time, God used that experience and others like it to communicate truth to those young women, and for at least one of them, it led to a relationship with Jesus Christ and a transformed life. That’s the kind of thing that can happen when children are prepared to outthink this world by applying God’s truth.

Dad, put Deuteronomy 6:4–7 into practice in your home:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (NIV)

God wants our households to be a primary place of spiritual training, especially when it comes to matters of faith.

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