“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Dear God, I suppose that if there is one thing I am supposed to know and remember to pass on to my children it is what the Jewish people call the “Shema Yisrael.” You are God, you are one, and I must love you with my whole heart, soul, and strength. Boy, is that harder to pass down than it sounds.

Over 20 years ago, I was at a Promise Keepers conference at Texas Stadium in Irving. One guy was talking to us and he used an illustration of three chairs. Each chair represented a level of love for and commitment to you. Chair #1 was VERY committed. Chair #2 was kind of committed. Chair #3 was not committed at all. He said that it usually goes that of generation #1 starts out in the first chair, it is likely that the next generation will be in the second chair and the third generation will be in the last chair. I think this is probably true which is why you gave Moses this passage to Still into the Israelites. We need to do everything we can to keep our children (and their children) in the first chair.

Father, you know what my wife and I tried to do with our children when they still lived at home. Now, they are both out in the world, and they will take those lessons (some of them anyway) with them. Give them what they need to live in that first chair. Help my wife and me to live in that first chair and stay there. It’s hard to not be distracted or tempted to follow our own way. But you are our God, you are one. I will love you above all others and with everything I have.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen