Many years ago, during my teaching days in Nebraska, the school that I was serving brought in a guest speaker to talk with the parents of kindergarten students.
The title of the presentation was: “Children-The Spittin’ Image of You.
I was not teaching kindergarten at the time, but the title interested me. So, I attended. It was a fantastic presentation.
There was an obvious focus on the reality that children do what they see modeled for them.
Proverbs 22: 6 says, “
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
How do we train our children? Do we simply speak and write rules for them? This is a part of it. But, it certainly is not the most important part.
If we want our children to be honest, we must demonstrate honesty. If we want our children to value others, we must show how we love and value other people. If we want our children to confess their wrong-doing, we must confess to them when we make mistakes. If we want our children to love Jesus and His Word, they need to see this in us, their parents.
They are indeed the spittin’ image of us.
Wow, that’s a huge burden! Right?
Well, yes it is. However, because of the love we have for our children, it is really more of a delight to show them.
What a tremendous blessing it is for our children to learn and grow from watching us. This training is indeed a big responsibility! But, imagine the payoff. The payoff can and should be children who will love Jesus and who will grow into fine citizens and leaders in the future.
Bill Meyer is Trinity Lutheran's principal.
