Okay, this is NOT how the Bacak children learn scripture. However, they DO learn scripture, as we apply it to our everyday life. 2 Timothy 3 says it is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness, and this is especially true for how we discipline our children.
The Lord impressed upon my heart some time ago that giving our kids rules for the sake of rules is training them for goodness, not Godliness. Because we have been talking about this at church, I wanted to share our own experiences with this. We want our kids to become obedient because of a heart change, not simply behavior modification. When we train in them in the way they should go (Godliness), they will not depart from it! Just telling them "because I said so" is not good enough. That ticked us off when we were kids, and it does the same for ours. Really, if we can't think of a good enough reason, that's pretty lame. If we have a rule in our home, it needs to be backed by a scriptural principle.
I though I'd share some of the most frequently quoted and used scriptures in our home. Almost all of the infractions committed by my children come back to these verses. Some of them are in the Bacak family translation, not to contort scripture to suit our own purposes, but to put it in language they understand WITHIN the spirit of the true meaning of the text. (That's what you call a disclaimer, folks.)
"Do everything without complaining or arguing." Phil. 2:14
"Do not let any unkind words come out of your mouth." (paraphrase) Eph. 4:29
"Be kind and compassionate to one another" Eph. 4:32
"Children, obey your parents..." Eph. 6:1
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind...
and love your neighbor as yourself." Matt. 22:37 & 39
These are just a few examples of the verses that my kids know well, and that we use in the everyday. No, we don't sit with our Bibles open at the table and study them everyday...yet. My kids are 5, 4, and 1. But we infuse the use of scripture in our everyday lives, because God's Word is so applicable! There is a Biblical solution to our every sin problem.
I also try to make prayer an everyday normal part of our day as well. Our best prayer times are in the car. Deuteronomy 6:7-9 says "Repeat them" (God's commands)"again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and your gates." The Bacak translation says "...when you are eating breakfast, and when you are driving in your mini-van. When you are snuggling together at bedtime, and when you are teaching them at home." Prayer and scripture memory cannot be compartmentalized into the church box of our life. There should be no church box! It should be a natural part of our everyday, 24 hours a day, life.
That's my goal as a Mom. If I have not trained them in righteousness, they will not be "thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:17) I cannot send them out into the world...heck, I can't send them to Kindergarten unless I know they are hiding His Word in their hearts and have a clue as to how it applies to them.
We haven't got it all figured out as parents, OBVIOUSLY, but the Lord continues to show me new things as a Mom, and if we all shared those new things with one another, we might benefit.
Let me know effective ways you are teaching your kids as well!
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