I strongly feel it's the job of my husband and I to educate our children about what we believe. Anything else they get at church is bonus. The primary job is mine, because it's my example of how I feel about what I believe that will leave the most lasting impression on them.
Do my actions match my words? Do I seem to love God and his word above all else? If they see that I do, then it will imprint on their little hearts that my faith is for real and theirs should be too.
It all got started when my 9 year old son petty much deemed all the kid's devotionals I was using as "baby stuff". So, I figured he was ready for the meat and potatoes of reading the actual bible. I personally just read the bible straight through a chapter a day over and over. I thought, why don't I just read them the chapter I just read earlier in the day and we talk about it. We started in Genesis because in God's timing I was just starting over. No lie, I do substitute more kid friendly words at times (especially on grown up topics like oh, say that grand old town of Sodom) but I do not change up the message. We use a very easy to read translation.
So when we started Leviticus, which provides the detailed laws of the old covenant of God with the Jews before Christ , I faced a real challenge.
How to make this relevant to them and not impossible to understand.
I think Chapter 5 provided a perfect example how this works.
1) I read the chapter and I have to then figure out how I would explain this to and elementary age child living in 2011. This has been pretty amazing for me because I am seeing connections I have never seen before.
2.) Here's the break down of the actual chapter: Three things that a person could do that were sins against God, that might happen without the person registering they had done wrong until later. The things were: Not reporting something they witnessed in a public case, touching something unclean and making a foolish or hasty oath/vow for good or evil. Three things were required after they realized they had done these sins: Confession to the priest, animal or grain sacrifice and a monetary offering as restitution.
3.) The break down for us is- if we realize we have withheld information in a public case, allowed ourselves to watch, hear or participate in something we know is sin (unclean to the new testament Christian) or if we foolishly promised a good or evil act in haste we need to confess to God (no priest required since the veil was torn at the Crucifixion), we need to ask the final sacrifice, Christ, to forgive our sin and we need to make right anything or anyone hurt by our act. The money offering symbolic of paying back/making right the wrong done.
I had never seen Leviticus as being so practical before. What an eye opener.
Daily Bonus Flowers just for you from my Garden:
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