The Word-Centered Home

During the early months and years of a child's life, their capacity for learning is unrivaled. For just one example, in less than 36 months of life outside the womb, most children become fluent speakers not only of a foreign language, but of an altogether foreign activity called speaking. Within this short window of time, (and merely by imitation and repetition as they are nurtured within the nuclear family), they go from being unable even to form particular sounds, to crafting complex sentences. The newborn’s hums and cries become the toddler’s articulate expressions of love, joy, intrigue, curiosity, and of course, tantrums.

What a marvel of God's creation! Let us never believe the Devil's lie that it is too soon to begin teaching our children the Scriptures. God has fit them for the task. Of course, we must kneel down and feed them nibbles suitable to their stature, but we must not entertain the great fallacy that they are not ready for the Word of God. The longer their lives persist without God’s Word at the center, the greater their struggle will be to center themselves upon it later on.

Anyone who thinks otherwise thinks himself wiser than God. For it is God who says to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, (Eph. 6:4). It is the Almighty who tells his people to abundantly fill their waking lives and homes with the testimony of his Word, (Deut. 6:7-8). He who made the mind and heart of every child is he who wrote the Word to guide them both for his glory. Let us trust him and be faithful to lead our families in godliness day by day. There is no greater heritage a child can receive—whether a toddler or teen— than to be raised in a home where the Word of God is consistently revered, read together, faithfully taught, and sincerely obeyed. No mentor who will ever come into a child’s life down the road will ever have the intrinsic capability of influence that you have as a mother or father right now.

Let us trust the promise of our Maker who said,

Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it, (Prov. 22:6)