Teach the Children

Deuteronomy 11:19
Teach them (God’s commandments) to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Educating our Children is the number one Civil Rights issue of the 21st century. Our schools are failing all across America. America is behind in its report card when measured against other nations. Educational reform is needed in our schools. Educators are rising up all over the nation with charter schools that seek to teach the children who have been left behind in struggling inner cities. Power Center Academy in Memphis, TN is one of the leading charter schools in the state of Tennessee. Some of the scholars that initially come to the school are three years behind in their proficiency before they are empowered to rise above the mendacity of low proficiency. What’s the difference? Teachers! A good teacher is able to teach 150% of the curriculum in a year while a bad teacher only covers 50%. The difference is good teachers.

Teaching is just not reserved for Public educators. Good teaching starts at home. If our children are going to succeed in school and in life they must be taught at home. You can have book sense with no common sense. You can have zeal without knowledge. You can have lost children who are wandering in the wilderness because they have no moral compass.

When Moses was giving the Israelites’ instruction on how to cross over into the Promised Land he told them to teach the children. Teach the children what? Teach them to love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, and soul and Jesus would add later, to love your neighbor as yourself. Their success depends upon their knowledge and application of God’s word. Parents have to be the first teacher. What increases the likelihood of a child succeeding in life and against all odds is a good teacher at home and school. Whether you are in the city or the suburbs you need to teach your child by:

1. Talking about God’s commandments when you are at home. Spend time in devotion with your family. Teach the word of God to your children. Help your child with homework. Inspect what you expect.

2. Walking along the road. Communicate with your child and teach them in transit. Use travel time to speak life into your children. Cut the radio down and turn up the communication. Spend time walking, recreating with your children.

3. In your lying down and getting up. Pray with your children every night and every morning. Praying with your child builds their faith and shows them that there is a power higher than anything they will ever come up against.

You can always tell when a child has been taught at home by how they act and treat other people. You must teach what you want to see, and lead by example.

Dear God,
Help me to be a good teacher to my own children first so that I can help the education process in the public schools by sending an obedient child to the classroom. Raise up “God fearing” educators that can create reform around this nation by going the “extra mile” to teach our children with all their heart, mind and soul. The redemption of a nation begins in the homes of its people. Lord God redeem us as we teach our children the ways of you, oh God.

In Jesus Name,
Amen