Teach Your Children Well
“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.” (Deuteronomy 4:9)
I was recently in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, to officiate at a friend’s wedding.
It was a rainy day with the typical Minnesota flat-iron overcast sky. Pretty dripping dreary, actually. My wife and I had arrived with plenty of time to drive around before we overnighted at her brother’s home. So, we decided to revisit many of the places we had lived since childhood.
Ah, nostalgia!
But what began as wallowing in memories became a discussion of things even farther in the past as we drove next to the cemetery where my mother and paternal grandparents are buried.
I know the Bible promises a future resurrection of the dead, but memories serve a similar purpose. However, memories and the resurrection itself are very different. When our bodies are resurrected, we will have every atom restored, albeit in a complete, perfected, and glorious condition that will exceed our current physical limitations and eliminate the aging process.
But memories are different. As we’ve all experienced, memories change and fade. During our drive-time discussion, I would sometimes declare that such and such happened, and my wife would lovingly correct me. It wasn’t much, you know. It usually had to do with a date, a time, a person, a place, an incident, or any other multitude of details that had apparently slipped my mind. (You husbands know what I’m talking about.)
But I mentioned memories she didn’t know about, memories that were mine alone. Memories that would have been forgotten if I hadn’t shared them with her.
I remembered my dad, Paul John Christianson, reminiscing about his dad, Hans Ebenhard Christianson, and how his father may have had only an eighth-grade education but was extremely adept at drafting and engineering. Come to think of it, this is either praise for my grandfather or an indictment of our current educational system.
Grandpa Hans left the farm in Deer Park, Wisconsin, around 1912 as a young teenager. He had a suitcase and five dollars tucked in his pocket. Hans traveled to St. Paul, MN, to start a new life. He eventually landed a job at the Shurmeier-Whitney Co., which built horse-drawn wagons and carriages and, later, motor vehicles (https://www.schurmeierwhitney.com/history). Grandpa Hans often spoke of his boss, Lt. Col. Alfred Whitney, with great respect.
My grandfather also worked at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Arden Hills, MN (https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/twin-cities-army-ammunition-plant) and for the St. Paul Water Works (https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/thing/establishment-minneapolis-waterworks-1867-1910).
Even though Grandpa Hans shared many stories (over and over, you know?), I regret that most of them have faded and been forgotten. The same is true about the memories of my own father, who passed away on November 9, 2024. I have memories of him of which my own children know nothing. I cannot begin to imagine the world of information, experiences, and wisdom my grandpa and dad took with them to the grave.
Every time I resurrect their memories, a little more of the mental picture fades, and the edges grow a little more ragged. I know that someday those pictures will be entirely lost and forgotten when I pass…
Unless I pass them along to my children,
And they pass them along to their children,
And so on.
I face a painful reality. Eventually, all memories of me will be lost within a few generations. All that will remain of my existence is perhaps a few books in a descendant’s library or in a used bookstore, and a few personal items. But even then, those items will lose their connection with me. With AI today, the system will likely have scraped a few flecks of information floating in cyberspace. But all that will be left of me is a cemetery marker. That, too, will fade in time.
When my wife and I arrived at the wedding venue the following day, it was a mid-1800s white church in the countryside near Red Wing, MN. It was a classic: a typical sanctuary with a high, vaulted ceiling, a cozy fellowship room beneath it, and a small cemetery beside it.
I walked the cemetery as final preparations were being made. The juxtaposition was stunning: new lives beginning beside lives long finished. I wanted to find the headstone with the oldest birthdate. The earliest I could make out was 1828. But another monument stood there: a small obelisk with chiseled script. Despite being of stone, winter’s extreme cold and summer’s heat had taken their toll. I couldn’t make out a word.
However, a thoughtful soul from the now-defunct congregation had created a chart that hung on an outbuilding on the edge of the grounds. Every person in every plot had been recorded for generations to come so that the lives that had been lived were not completely forgotten.
That got me thinking as I stood there, reflecting on my own family’s history and how I will be remembered, then forgotten, by the generations to come.
In that moment, I understood more clearly why the Lord was so adamant that parents teach their children about Him, His salvation, and how He wants us all to live.
Every generation needs two crucial things: 1) Head knowledge of God from His Scriptures, and 2) An experiential encounter and walk with God. If we fail to pass on our knowledge of and experience with God to the next generation, that generation will quickly drift away from the Lord.
Why did Israel get into trouble with the Lord in the Book of Judges? It began with a generation passing away. “Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:8-10).
The very next two verses are heart-breaking. “The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the Lord…” (Judges 2:11).
Forgetting the Lord leads to a very dark place. Sometimes, that place becomes very difficult from which to emerge.
Therefore, we must teach the next generation about the Lord, and instill in them the need to reach the generation that will follow them!
We must not forget the Lord ourselves, and we must not fail to impart our knowledge of the Lord and the experience we’ve had meeting Him and living with Him.
The Lord told His people in no uncertain terms to do everything they could to instill in every successive generation knowledge of the Lord and a reverence for Him.
We must share what we know: “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’” (Deuteronomy 6:20), and “Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 11:19).
We must share our experience: “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘By the strength of his hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery’” (Exodus 13:14).
Both of these “need to’s” require mentors, parents, and leaders (pastors, teachers, and mature Christians who can teach and train others), as well as a church community where they can grow and thrive.
These needs are why Christian education drives my own life. I’m sad that I didn’t do more as a father with my own children. But where I fell short, the Lord has stepped in to take up my slack.
Now, I’m becoming a “father” to others by leading multiple Bible classes every week, developing courses for future students, and creating an atmosphere in my classes not just for cramming head knowledge of the Lord, but for everyone to share their experiences of walking with the Lord.
We cannot forget for ourselves, and we cannot forget to impart to the next generation. Otherwise, faith in the Lord will become a worn gravestone, lost in a cemetery of memory.
But thanks be to God, we have the Holy Spirit, who will always find a way to keep the kingdom alive, fresh, and growing until Jesus returns and “the earth [is] filled with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory, as the water covers the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
That said, the assurance of Jesus’ return doesn’t exempt us from doing our God-assigned part in perpetuating our knowledge, experience, and memories of the Lord in the generations to come.
So, help out with children’s church. Join a Christian Ed class to increase your knowledge base. Start and support a Christian Education program in your congregation. Help with youth, young adult, parent, and senior education and ministry.
Share with someone—anyone.
Although you will inevitably shuffle off this mortal coil, the Lord will use your memory and influence to affect generations.
So, get to it.
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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts