Psalm 78
There’s this old saying, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.” I think there’s a ton of truth in this statement. The survivors of the Holocaust had a saying, “Never Again.” Yet, while the Holocaust took place (and afterward), Stalin was busy murdering 20 million of his own people. There were the killing fields in southeast Asia, the “ethnic cleansing” in eastern Europe, and now the genocide in Darfur.
Seems like we really do forget…
Psalm 78 is a psalm that was written to help people not forget about their past–specifically their history, their sin against God, God’s judgment, and God’s compassion. Look at what the author writes in Psalm 78:1-8,
Listen, O my people, to my instruction’ incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation taht did not prpare its heart, and whos spirit was not faithful to God.
For those of us who follow Jesus, we are our children’s “youth ministers”, whether we know it or not… whether we want to be or not.
It seems like the youth ministry paradigm in the American church is broken. We’ve entrusted our children’s spiritual development to professional staff. We’ll teach our kids how to drive a stick shift, hit a golf ball, and bake cookies, but we’ll leave the spiritual formation to the pros. When people shop for a church (which is completely loony), what do they do? They choose the one that’s “best for the children.” I believe in student and youth ministry, but student and youth ministry should suppliment what’s going on in the home. Youth ministers and student ministers should be freed up to mentor kids who don’t live in a Christian home. But what’s happening? They’re stuck baby sitting the Christian children.
Our children aren’t morons. But we sure are.
They can see right through that kind of crap reasoning. They ask themselves, “If it’s good enough for me, why isn’t it good enough for mom and dad?” It’s no wonder that most kids bolt from the church the minute they’re out of the house. They grow, see their parents “play church” while seeing no evidence of Christ-empowered transformation. They conclude that the church is old-fashioned, out of touch, and full of hypocrites.
Something’s gotta change…
Instead of turning our kids’ spiritual formation over to the pros, we need to proactively take action at home. Like the writer of this Psalm says, we need to teach our children about God, about Jesus, and what it means to follow Him. It’s way more than reading the Bible and praying with them (which is vitally important). It also includes modeling for them what it looks like to follow Jesus–living the life, not just believing the belief. It’s looking for teachable moments, it’s spending quality time with them, it’s exposing them to the plight of those in need (we just took our kids to the homeless shelter; it was amazing to see how my 6-year-old reacted).
Having said this, I’m not one of those annoying ”super Christians” who forces their kids to memorize entire books of the King James Version of the Bible, who shelters them from the evils of the world, who expects perfect behavior because of what others will think, etc. That’s legalism, which will either produce a religious jerk or a total rejection of Jesus. That approach is void of forgiveness and grace.
I simply have made my goal as a dad this: to help my kids love Jesus.
And that’s not a professional’s job. It’s mine: to (as the author of this psalm writes) “tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”