Training. Equipping. Arming. Aiming.
Training. Equipping. Arming. Aiming.
These are words that come to my mind as I think about my children – both my own 3 precious children and those whose time and moldable minds are entrusted to me at different times during the week. In particular, this concept came to mind this week after our Sunday afternoon Bible Bowl practice.
This year, the organizers of the annual Bible Bowl held in Cookeville chose the Old Testament book of Leviticus for us to study. They limited the chapters we are studying to make it age appropriate for even our youngest “bowlers” but there is still a lot of meat (pun intended) in this book. Some of you may be wondering how I link a book full of OT law and directives to equipping our modern-day children.
In my group, made up of 6th- to 8th-grade girls, we are trying to study Leviticus in the framework of God’s whole plan. We are putting it back into the context of the purpose of the old law and the concepts we can see repeated throughout the Bible, even in application to us as New Testament Christians.
Somehow this Sunday, our attempt to “rightly divide the word” led us all the way back to Genesis and a discussion of world history. I wanted the girls to see that they don’t have to learn world history at school and think it is separate from what God gave us in the Bible. Genesis 4 is where you link to the Bronze Age and the invention of musical instruments. They need to see the Bible as factual and relevant to the things they learn in school. They need to be equipped to respectfully discuss with teachers a Biblical worldview. Believe it or not, there are some Christian teachers out there hoping their students will mention these things because once a student brings it up, the teacher can discuss it!
I was so thankful Sunday when one of my young ladies said something to the effect of “Hey, I read about that in that magazine from the church lobby!” You see, our elders provide equipment for our young people and her parents made sure she was using that equipment. My girls (and I) may miss the questions at Bible Bowl about which body part is to be washed before burned, but I hope we will always remember concepts like reverence for God, preparing to worship, God’s plan to save mankind, and how He has always given us exactly what we need.
For this week, I encourage you (and me) to spend some time thinking about the following verses and how we can train, equip, arm, and aim our children toward heaven:
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Ephesians 4:12 “…equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”
Psalm 127:4 “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”
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