Sunday Leftovers (7/8/07)

For the most part, the much dreaded millennium bug was pretty much a non-event. For a 105-year-old woman in Norway, it provided an occasion for a reflective chuckle. Because the computer for a local government agency that offered free daycare to all five-year-olds in Oslo, it pulled all the records of children born in '94 — including the record of one woman born in 1894, not 1994. Imagine her surprise at finding the invitation to attend kindergarten — again. One hundred years later!

Or, perhaps the opportunity elicited some inner contemplation on this order: "If I really could go back, what would I do differently? How different would my life be with a different start?"

How we start is important.

And that is why Solomon, when instructing his son about spiritual life, began his talk with direct words about the authority and blessing of adherence to the Word of God. And the first word about the first spiritual priority was, "do not forget my teaching [lit., Torah]." This command is a warning about the importance of remembering the Word of God.

Now, when we say, "remember the Word of God," it is easy to slip into a discourse about Scripture memory. There is an element of that which is true — memorizing Scripture should yield a meditation on Scripture which should produce an increasingly transformed life. However, Solomon equates remembering God's Word to obeying and doing the word of God, which he states by using the words keep (v. 1), bind them around your neck, and write them on your heart (v. 3).

So the task of the parent in discipling his child is to stimulate the child to remember what the truth is, what it has been designed by God to do in the individual, and then to faithful do what it says. So my task as a Dad is to examine every situation in the life of my children, help them evaluate it in the light of Biblical truth, and then encourage, exhort, and help them to obey with joy.

So there are two questions that remain:

1. How well are my children remembering (obeying) the Word of God?
2. What am I doing to stimulate them to remember the Word of God well?
   

Crawford Loritts asked it well in his recent sermon "Passing the Torch:"

What signature are you writing on the souls of future generations?…Is there a clear pathway that can be seen through how you approach ministry back to the character of God and the content of Scripture? How are you thinking about what God has entrusted to you?