In our last visit I shared how my mother lived out what the Psalmist shared in Psalm 78. She taught her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren truths from God’s Word. She also shared her “faith stories” with us in a winsome way. As she daily lived out what she taught and shared she became a Spiritual Matriarch in the best sense of the word.
My wife has researched our family’s roots. As a result of that research, she discovered many “family faith stories.” We’ve shared these with our children and now with our grandchildren. It is important to teach them the Word of God, but it’s also important to share how what we teach from the Bible is experienced in life. Hopefully they can see it in our lives as well.
Why is it important? In Psalm 78:7 it says, “Then they would put their trust in God, and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.” It’s important to do this throughout life because it is so easy for children to forget. Throughout this Psalm we are reminded of how often the Israelites forgot and rebelled. Through facing the bitter consequences they would be brought back to God, but then shortly after they would forget again.
Our teaching, sharing and modeling is to help our offspring remember. But like Israel’s forefathers and like us, we often forget and need to be reminded. We are helped when we work at trying to help our offspring not to forget.
Every parent or grandparent would be wise to read this Psalm periodically to be reminded of their unique privilege and responsibility toward their offspring.
