Faith That Last
Parents, what do you want most for your children? Most parents would probably give similar answers. We want our children to be happy, healthy, successful, and surrounded by good friends. We want them to make wise choices, receive a good education, find meaningful work, and enjoy opportunities we never had. We want them to build strong families and experience lives filled with joy.
Those desires are good, but a more difficult question deserves our attention.
What if our children receive every one of those things and miss Jesus?
What if they make the team, earn the scholarship, graduate with honors, build successful careers, and purchase their dream homes, yet never genuinely know Christ? Would we still call that success?
The Bible gives us a different picture of success. Third John 4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” There truly is no greater joy than knowing our children are walking with Jesus. Church attendance alone is not the goal. Knowing the correct Bible answers is not enough. Growing up in a Christian home does not guarantee a personal relationship with Christ. Our deepest desire should be for our children to know Jesus, trust Jesus, love Jesus, and follow Jesus for themselves.
One day, they will walk out of our homes. Their faith must become more than something their parents believe. It must become their own.
A Limited Number of Weeks
The day a child is born begins a countdown that most parents rarely consider. From birth until high school graduation, parents have approximately 936 weeks with their children. That number sounds enormous when they are babies, but parents of older children know how quickly those weeks disappear.
By the time a child enters sixth grade, roughly 572 of those weeks are already gone. Approximately 364 weeks remain before graduation. Middle school accounts for only about 156 weeks. Parents of sixth graders will look up sooner than they expect and see their children walking into high school. The high school years will move even faster.
Our time is limited, which means we must decide what scoreboard we are using. Families often celebrate trophies, scholarships, acceptance letters, promotions, and accomplishments. Those moments should be celebrated. Heaven, however, uses a different scoreboard. Jesus said heaven rejoices when one sinner repents.
I think about my own children, Cooper and Bristol. There are a thousand things I want for them. I want them to succeed, have meaningful opportunities, build strong friendships, and enjoy their lives. Something infinitely more important stands above all those desires. I want my children to know Jesus. Everything else I have dreamed for them means very little if they gain it all and miss Him.
This truth is not meant to produce guilt. Every parent already knows they are imperfect, and their children know it too. Perfect parenting is not the goal. Faithful discipleship is the goal.
Children do not need perfect parents. They need imperfect parents who consistently point them toward a perfect Savior.
Know God
Deuteronomy 6 gives families a simple and powerful pattern for building a faith that lasts. Israel was standing on the edge of the Promised Land after spending forty years in the wilderness. An entire generation had died because of unbelief, and Moses was giving final instructions to the next generation.
Moses did not begin with military strategy, financial advice, or political instruction. He began with God because Israel’s greatest danger was not the people surrounding them. Their greatest danger was forgetting God. That danger remains today. We can build successful lives and forget God. We can fill our homes with activities and forget God. We can even create religious homes and still forget God.
Deuteronomy 6:4 begins with the word “hear.” The Hebrew word is shema, which means more than allowing sound to enter our ears. It means listening with the intention of responding. God was not merely giving Israel information to remember. He was giving them truth upon which they were to build their lives.
Israel was entering a culture filled with false gods. Every direction offered another object of worship. Moses reminded them that there is only one true God. He has no rival, equal, or competitor.
Children need to know more than what Christians do. They need to know who God is. Christianity cannot be reduced to a list of behaviors and restrictions. Obedience matters, but Christianity does not begin with rules. It begins with God. Our children need to understand who God is, what He has done, and why He alone is worthy of their worship. Whatever captures their worship will eventually control their lives.
Everyone worships something. Popularity, sports, relationships, approval, success, money, appearance, and comfort constantly compete for our hearts. The real question is not whether we worship. The question is what has our hearts.
A faith that lasts begins with knowing God.
Love God
Knowing God should lead us to love Him. Deuteronomy 6:5 commands us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might. God wants more than church attendance, religious activity, and outwardly good behavior. He wants our hearts. He refuses to become one item among many competing priorities because He deserves our complete devotion.
Jesus identified this command as the greatest and first commandment in Matthew 22:37 and 38. Every area of obedience flows from our love for God. John 14:15 teaches that those who love Jesus will keep His commandments. The order matters. Christianity does not teach us to behave properly so God will love us. The gospel teaches that God has loved us, and our obedience is a response to that love.
Deuteronomy 6 places another important truth before parents. God tells His people to place His words upon their own hearts before He tells them to teach those words to their children. Family discipleship begins within the heart of a parent before it reaches the atmosphere of a home.
Our children do not need us to have every answer. They need to see that we need Jesus too. They need to see us pray, read Scripture, worship, forgive, and repent. Some of the most powerful words a parent can say are, “I was wrong. I should not have spoken to you that way. Will you forgive me?”
I wish I could say my children have only seen me follow Jesus well. They have seen me lose my patience and heard me use the wrong tone. Some moments have required me to walk back into their rooms, admit that I was wrong, and ask for forgiveness. Those failures can still become discipleship moments. Honest repentance shows our children that we need the same grace we are teaching them about.
Parents cannot pass on what they are not personally pursuing. Our children may hear what we say, but they will also watch what we love. Our lives will communicate what truly matters to us long before our words ever do.
Talk About God
Deuteronomy 6:7 tells parents to teach God’s truth diligently to their children. The original language creates the picture of sharpening a blade. A blade does not become sharp after passing across a sharpener once. The process requires repeated movement over time. Discipleship works the same way. It is intentional repetition through thousands of ordinary moments.
Parents may become discouraged when they feel they have already explained the same truth repeatedly. Faithful discipleship continues teaching, explaining, reminding, and modeling. Most discipleship does not happen through one enormous spiritual experience. It happens through countless small moments of faithfulness.
God places the primary responsibility for discipling children upon parents. The church has an incredibly important role. Pastors, student ministries, children’s ministries, and Sunday school teachers should teach, equip, encourage, and reinforce biblical truth. The church, however, was never intended to replace the spiritual influence of parents.
A pastor may have a child or teenager for a few hours each week. Parents receive hundreds of ordinary moments, and Deuteronomy 6 reveals that those moments are where discipleship happens. God tells parents to talk about His truth while sitting at home, traveling, lying down, and rising in the morning. Those four rhythms describe the whole of everyday life.
Conversations at the dinner table, on the couch, or in the kitchen can become opportunities to talk about God. Every conversation does not need to become a sermon. Parents can simply ask how they can pray, what was difficult about the day, what their children are thankful for, or what God is teaching them. Traveling together provides another natural opportunity. Modern families spend a tremendous amount of time driving to school, practices, stores, and activities. Some of the deepest conversations I have experienced with my children started while we were driving down the road. A random question came from the passenger seat, usually when I felt completely unprepared to answer it.
Teenagers may resist sitting across from a parent for a serious conversation. A drive with everyone looking through the windshield can suddenly make talking feel easier. Those moments should not be wasted. Bedtime also brings important questions. Children may ask why God allowed something painful, how they can know they are saved, why someone died, or why God has not answered a prayer. Parents may feel tired, but the conversation they are tempted to rush could become the one their child remembers forever.
Mornings carry spiritual opportunities as well. Children often hear commands to hurry, find their shoes, and get into the car. Imagine the impact of also hearing, “I love you. I am praying for you. Remember who you belong to.”
Family discipleship is not another event to squeeze into an already crowded calendar. It is learning to bring Jesus into the calendar we already have. Our homes do not need to become seminaries. They need conversations, prayer, Scripture, and an atmosphere where talking about Jesus feels normal.
Show God
Deuteronomy 6:8 and 9 describes God’s truth being placed on hands, before eyes, upon doorposts, and at gates. The picture is a life completely surrounded and shaped by the Word of God. Our actions, thoughts, homes, and public lives should reveal that God’s truth matters.
Scripture displayed on a wall can be a meaningful reminder, but reminders must never replace reality. A family can display Bible verses throughout the house while refusing to obey them. Someone can wear a cross without following the One who died upon it. A person can own several Bibles without opening any of them. Showing God means allowing our lives to make visible what we claim to believe.
Someone living in our homes for a week would quickly discover what matters most to us. Our schedules, conversations, spending, emotional reactions, and priorities would reveal whether sports, grades, comfort, success, or Jesus occupies the center.
The question is not whether our homes are perfect. The real question is whether our homes have a clear direction. Does grace appear when someone fails? Does repentance follow sin? Does prayer become the response to fear? Does gratitude accompany success? Does forgiveness overcome conflict? Does God’s Word guide us when we do not know what to do?
A godly home is not a place where nobody fails. It is a place where everyone knows where to run when failure comes.
His name is Jesus.
Our Hope Is a Perfect Savior
Deuteronomy 6 gives us four simple truths. We are called to know God, love God, talk about God, and show others what following God looks like. Honesty requires us to admit that none of us has done these things perfectly. We have not loved God with our entire hearts. Distractions have captured our attention, and other things have competed for our affection. Parents, students, and pastors have all failed.
A message that simply tells us to go home and try harder is not good news. It is another burden placed upon people who are already tired. The good news is Jesus.
Jesus did not merely quote Deuteronomy 6. He fulfilled it. He loved the Father perfectly in every moment, decision, and temptation. Jesus succeeded where Israel failed and where we have failed. The only One who loved God perfectly went to the cross for people who did not.
Jesus did not die because He failed. He died because we did.
Jesus took our sin, rebellion, guilt, and divided hearts upon Himself. He died in our place, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Our hope is not a perfect family. Our hope is a perfect Savior. God does not merely command us to love Him more. He promises to give us new hearts. Jesus does more than improve our lives. He makes us new, and real family discipleship begins with Him.
One day, our children will leave our homes. Their bedrooms will become empty. Sports equipment will disappear. Trophies will collect dust, and school pictures will sit inside boxes. Our children will begin building lives of their own.
I hope they remember the vacations, laughter, ball games, and Christmas mornings. My greatest prayer is that they remember Jesus. I pray they can say, “My parents were not perfect, but they knew God. They loved God. They talked about God. They showed me what following God looked like.”
That is success.
Parents who feel they have failed may believe they should have started years ago. Some have teenagers, while others have children who are already grown. Yesterday cannot be changed, but today can be surrendered. A new beginning can start with a simple prayer: “Jesus, start with me. Change my heart, change my priorities, and change the culture of my home.”
Faithful discipleship does not require beginning with a lengthy family Bible study every night. Start by praying together, reading one passage, asking one question, or having one meaningful conversation. Take one faithful step, followed by another, and trust Jesus to use ordinary faithfulness to shape the next generation.
Those desires are good, but a more difficult question deserves our attention.
What if our children receive every one of those things and miss Jesus?
What if they make the team, earn the scholarship, graduate with honors, build successful careers, and purchase their dream homes, yet never genuinely know Christ? Would we still call that success?
The Bible gives us a different picture of success. Third John 4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” There truly is no greater joy than knowing our children are walking with Jesus. Church attendance alone is not the goal. Knowing the correct Bible answers is not enough. Growing up in a Christian home does not guarantee a personal relationship with Christ. Our deepest desire should be for our children to know Jesus, trust Jesus, love Jesus, and follow Jesus for themselves.
One day, they will walk out of our homes. Their faith must become more than something their parents believe. It must become their own.
A Limited Number of Weeks
The day a child is born begins a countdown that most parents rarely consider. From birth until high school graduation, parents have approximately 936 weeks with their children. That number sounds enormous when they are babies, but parents of older children know how quickly those weeks disappear.
By the time a child enters sixth grade, roughly 572 of those weeks are already gone. Approximately 364 weeks remain before graduation. Middle school accounts for only about 156 weeks. Parents of sixth graders will look up sooner than they expect and see their children walking into high school. The high school years will move even faster.
Our time is limited, which means we must decide what scoreboard we are using. Families often celebrate trophies, scholarships, acceptance letters, promotions, and accomplishments. Those moments should be celebrated. Heaven, however, uses a different scoreboard. Jesus said heaven rejoices when one sinner repents.
I think about my own children, Cooper and Bristol. There are a thousand things I want for them. I want them to succeed, have meaningful opportunities, build strong friendships, and enjoy their lives. Something infinitely more important stands above all those desires. I want my children to know Jesus. Everything else I have dreamed for them means very little if they gain it all and miss Him.
This truth is not meant to produce guilt. Every parent already knows they are imperfect, and their children know it too. Perfect parenting is not the goal. Faithful discipleship is the goal.
Children do not need perfect parents. They need imperfect parents who consistently point them toward a perfect Savior.
Know God
Deuteronomy 6 gives families a simple and powerful pattern for building a faith that lasts. Israel was standing on the edge of the Promised Land after spending forty years in the wilderness. An entire generation had died because of unbelief, and Moses was giving final instructions to the next generation.
Moses did not begin with military strategy, financial advice, or political instruction. He began with God because Israel’s greatest danger was not the people surrounding them. Their greatest danger was forgetting God. That danger remains today. We can build successful lives and forget God. We can fill our homes with activities and forget God. We can even create religious homes and still forget God.
Deuteronomy 6:4 begins with the word “hear.” The Hebrew word is shema, which means more than allowing sound to enter our ears. It means listening with the intention of responding. God was not merely giving Israel information to remember. He was giving them truth upon which they were to build their lives.
Israel was entering a culture filled with false gods. Every direction offered another object of worship. Moses reminded them that there is only one true God. He has no rival, equal, or competitor.
Children need to know more than what Christians do. They need to know who God is. Christianity cannot be reduced to a list of behaviors and restrictions. Obedience matters, but Christianity does not begin with rules. It begins with God. Our children need to understand who God is, what He has done, and why He alone is worthy of their worship. Whatever captures their worship will eventually control their lives.
Everyone worships something. Popularity, sports, relationships, approval, success, money, appearance, and comfort constantly compete for our hearts. The real question is not whether we worship. The question is what has our hearts.
A faith that lasts begins with knowing God.
Love God
Knowing God should lead us to love Him. Deuteronomy 6:5 commands us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might. God wants more than church attendance, religious activity, and outwardly good behavior. He wants our hearts. He refuses to become one item among many competing priorities because He deserves our complete devotion.
Jesus identified this command as the greatest and first commandment in Matthew 22:37 and 38. Every area of obedience flows from our love for God. John 14:15 teaches that those who love Jesus will keep His commandments. The order matters. Christianity does not teach us to behave properly so God will love us. The gospel teaches that God has loved us, and our obedience is a response to that love.
Deuteronomy 6 places another important truth before parents. God tells His people to place His words upon their own hearts before He tells them to teach those words to their children. Family discipleship begins within the heart of a parent before it reaches the atmosphere of a home.
Our children do not need us to have every answer. They need to see that we need Jesus too. They need to see us pray, read Scripture, worship, forgive, and repent. Some of the most powerful words a parent can say are, “I was wrong. I should not have spoken to you that way. Will you forgive me?”
I wish I could say my children have only seen me follow Jesus well. They have seen me lose my patience and heard me use the wrong tone. Some moments have required me to walk back into their rooms, admit that I was wrong, and ask for forgiveness. Those failures can still become discipleship moments. Honest repentance shows our children that we need the same grace we are teaching them about.
Parents cannot pass on what they are not personally pursuing. Our children may hear what we say, but they will also watch what we love. Our lives will communicate what truly matters to us long before our words ever do.
Talk About God
Deuteronomy 6:7 tells parents to teach God’s truth diligently to their children. The original language creates the picture of sharpening a blade. A blade does not become sharp after passing across a sharpener once. The process requires repeated movement over time. Discipleship works the same way. It is intentional repetition through thousands of ordinary moments.
Parents may become discouraged when they feel they have already explained the same truth repeatedly. Faithful discipleship continues teaching, explaining, reminding, and modeling. Most discipleship does not happen through one enormous spiritual experience. It happens through countless small moments of faithfulness.
God places the primary responsibility for discipling children upon parents. The church has an incredibly important role. Pastors, student ministries, children’s ministries, and Sunday school teachers should teach, equip, encourage, and reinforce biblical truth. The church, however, was never intended to replace the spiritual influence of parents.
A pastor may have a child or teenager for a few hours each week. Parents receive hundreds of ordinary moments, and Deuteronomy 6 reveals that those moments are where discipleship happens. God tells parents to talk about His truth while sitting at home, traveling, lying down, and rising in the morning. Those four rhythms describe the whole of everyday life.
Conversations at the dinner table, on the couch, or in the kitchen can become opportunities to talk about God. Every conversation does not need to become a sermon. Parents can simply ask how they can pray, what was difficult about the day, what their children are thankful for, or what God is teaching them. Traveling together provides another natural opportunity. Modern families spend a tremendous amount of time driving to school, practices, stores, and activities. Some of the deepest conversations I have experienced with my children started while we were driving down the road. A random question came from the passenger seat, usually when I felt completely unprepared to answer it.
Teenagers may resist sitting across from a parent for a serious conversation. A drive with everyone looking through the windshield can suddenly make talking feel easier. Those moments should not be wasted. Bedtime also brings important questions. Children may ask why God allowed something painful, how they can know they are saved, why someone died, or why God has not answered a prayer. Parents may feel tired, but the conversation they are tempted to rush could become the one their child remembers forever.
Mornings carry spiritual opportunities as well. Children often hear commands to hurry, find their shoes, and get into the car. Imagine the impact of also hearing, “I love you. I am praying for you. Remember who you belong to.”
Family discipleship is not another event to squeeze into an already crowded calendar. It is learning to bring Jesus into the calendar we already have. Our homes do not need to become seminaries. They need conversations, prayer, Scripture, and an atmosphere where talking about Jesus feels normal.
Show God
Deuteronomy 6:8 and 9 describes God’s truth being placed on hands, before eyes, upon doorposts, and at gates. The picture is a life completely surrounded and shaped by the Word of God. Our actions, thoughts, homes, and public lives should reveal that God’s truth matters.
Scripture displayed on a wall can be a meaningful reminder, but reminders must never replace reality. A family can display Bible verses throughout the house while refusing to obey them. Someone can wear a cross without following the One who died upon it. A person can own several Bibles without opening any of them. Showing God means allowing our lives to make visible what we claim to believe.
Someone living in our homes for a week would quickly discover what matters most to us. Our schedules, conversations, spending, emotional reactions, and priorities would reveal whether sports, grades, comfort, success, or Jesus occupies the center.
The question is not whether our homes are perfect. The real question is whether our homes have a clear direction. Does grace appear when someone fails? Does repentance follow sin? Does prayer become the response to fear? Does gratitude accompany success? Does forgiveness overcome conflict? Does God’s Word guide us when we do not know what to do?
A godly home is not a place where nobody fails. It is a place where everyone knows where to run when failure comes.
His name is Jesus.
Our Hope Is a Perfect Savior
Deuteronomy 6 gives us four simple truths. We are called to know God, love God, talk about God, and show others what following God looks like. Honesty requires us to admit that none of us has done these things perfectly. We have not loved God with our entire hearts. Distractions have captured our attention, and other things have competed for our affection. Parents, students, and pastors have all failed.
A message that simply tells us to go home and try harder is not good news. It is another burden placed upon people who are already tired. The good news is Jesus.
Jesus did not merely quote Deuteronomy 6. He fulfilled it. He loved the Father perfectly in every moment, decision, and temptation. Jesus succeeded where Israel failed and where we have failed. The only One who loved God perfectly went to the cross for people who did not.
Jesus did not die because He failed. He died because we did.
Jesus took our sin, rebellion, guilt, and divided hearts upon Himself. He died in our place, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Our hope is not a perfect family. Our hope is a perfect Savior. God does not merely command us to love Him more. He promises to give us new hearts. Jesus does more than improve our lives. He makes us new, and real family discipleship begins with Him.
One day, our children will leave our homes. Their bedrooms will become empty. Sports equipment will disappear. Trophies will collect dust, and school pictures will sit inside boxes. Our children will begin building lives of their own.
I hope they remember the vacations, laughter, ball games, and Christmas mornings. My greatest prayer is that they remember Jesus. I pray they can say, “My parents were not perfect, but they knew God. They loved God. They talked about God. They showed me what following God looked like.”
That is success.
Parents who feel they have failed may believe they should have started years ago. Some have teenagers, while others have children who are already grown. Yesterday cannot be changed, but today can be surrendered. A new beginning can start with a simple prayer: “Jesus, start with me. Change my heart, change my priorities, and change the culture of my home.”
Faithful discipleship does not require beginning with a lengthy family Bible study every night. Start by praying together, reading one passage, asking one question, or having one meaningful conversation. Take one faithful step, followed by another, and trust Jesus to use ordinary faithfulness to shape the next generation.
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