James 1:22 – ”But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Teaching Your Child to be a doer of God’s Word – James stresses the need to act on what we hear. He makes it clear that those who trust God do not merely become experts at listening to God’s word. We are called to accept the word and agree to it in our hearts. He also emphasises that we are fooling ourselves if we think we can be hearers only and not doers of the word because people who sincerely love God are those who keep his commands (1 John 4:15)
God desires that we become authentic followers of Christ, knowing and loving our heavenly father and so obeying His teaching (John 14:23). Merely nodding our heads at the Word is not enough. Most of the stories we hear in the Bible are of Jesus not just teaching others, but actually doing the very things He was teaching. As Jesus has taught us, so we must also teach our children. As we live daily, can our children see us as examples of Christ? Are we doing the very thing we teach? How can we tell them to stand for the truth, when we are not focussed on sharing this truth we know and believe?
We need to make a conscious effort to live like the Christ we profess. As our children see us each day doing what we teach them, it will become easier for them to do what God says when we are not there, and, when they are faced with more difficult challenges such as resisting peer pressure, controlling their temper, using godly language, having pure thoughts etc.
