Perhaps when you were a child you too wanted your very own pair of walkie talkies! I remember mine well. They were huge! Each was about half the size of a shoe box. They were silver and black with red buttons and about a 3 foot long, telescopic metal antenna! I thought they were so awesome. I just knew I could talk with NASA if I needed to! They were great because they allowed one to walk around and talk to your buddies. (By the way, this was back when we talked to people, not just texted… but I digress).

As a parent or anyone who works with children, we must be a physical, walkie talkie! Deuteronomy 11:18-19 states, “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

Notice in verse 18 the charge is first for us to “lay up” or store up God’s Word within ourselves THEN we start to walk and talk. We cannot give away what we don’t first possess. Before we can minister to our children, we must first have a solid, vibrant, mature life with Christ.

Right after being filled with God and His Word, we then start teaching. Note though, this isn’t just any kind of teaching. Our verse is quite specific that we walk and talk about God’s commands. The clear inference here is that teaching and learning about God should occur within every aspect of the child’s day not just left to the church or your child’s Christian School to take care of. In George Barna’s book, Revolutionary Parenting, he states, “…the greatest gift they [parents] could give their offspring was a sound upbringing based on biblical principles.” Walking and talking about God is rooted in the decisions we make as parents and caregivers.

Great (not just good) parenting occurs when decisions we make are tied to biblical principles. Do we discipline God’s way? Do we merely drop our children off at mid-week service and go home or run errands? Do we read and study the Bible as a family? Do we balance the academic, athletic and social aspects of the child’s life with their faith? Barna goes on to list two critical characteristics solid, Christian families must possess. The first was rooted in talking. He states we should have, “…family conversations that bring biblical views into their shared lives.” The second characteristic he roots in our walking or daily living when he states that we need to “…engage in faith activities (Bible study, worship, prayer) that model the integration of faith into their lives.”

The bottom line is that we must be walkie talkies for Christ to our children. They must see that the principles and precepts from God’s Word flow seamlessly and effortlessly in and out of our daily activities. His commands should not just be reserved for certain times, but are applicable to every part of our day. How will they know that to be so unless they see it being done by you? We must live our faith out in front of them. However, don’t forget to actively and purposefully engage them so that they don’t watch and not realize what just happened. May we prepare for the questions that arise. Joshua 4:21 states, “He said to the Israelites, ‘In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’”…may we have an answer and may we show that answer by how we walk and how we talk.