Teaching Your Kids the Word of God

Jason Hauser is a dad who has had the kind of experience that I think all of us as dads have had at one point or another. I decided I was going to start having a family time with my kids, and I remember sitting in our boys' bedroom and trying to gather the boys together.

It was just two high-energy boys, as you can imagine. And doing some kind of a devotion with them or just talking about the Lord and them not listening and me getting frustrated. I mean, our first family devotion was a blow-up. But I knew how important it was, and I just had learned my role as a dad and our role as parents. And I was like, OK, I really want to step into this.

So I did make a commitment in my heart, like I'm going to persevere. This is Family Life Today. Our hosts are Dave and Ann Wilson.

I'm Bob Lapine. You can find us online at familylifetoday.com. All of us as parents want to point our kids in the right direction, to point them toward Jesus and to help them grow in their faith.

Is there an easy way to do that, a way that really connects with them? We've got one suggestion for you today. Stay with us. And welcome to Family Life Today.

Thanks for joining us. If we did a sword drill with the two of you or a Scripture memory quiz with the two of you— I was thinking, what's a sword drill? You don't know what a sword drill is? No, I know what sword drills are. I'm thinking about the Bible being your sword. OK. We didn't grow up in a— We weren't in the church world there, Bob. So sword drills are where you have kids, their Bibles are closed, and you say, OK, first person to read 2 Chronicles 3.17 wins. And so they've got to find it, stand up and read it. Literally never heard of a sword drill.

First time I've ever heard of it. Me either. Well, we've got two guys here who would know sword drills. Would they win? They would probably beat both of you. I'm just guessing.

And I love you, but these guys are probably going to— We're not offended. You want to do it? Let's go.

I'm a competitive guy. I heard 15 in your, you know, hermeneutics class, we talked about that. We've got some Scripture memorized here, so I don't know. Jason Hauser and John Majors are joining us again on Family Life Today. Guys, welcome back. It's great to be here.

Thank you. Jason gives leadership to Seeds Family Worship for the last 17 years. He has been putting Bible verses to music. There are albums available for families to listen to. He put together verses for Family Life for the Passport to Purity and Passport to Identity series, so that parents during those outings with their kids could memorize Scripture together, and they're great songs that are still stuck in my head. In fact, I hear some of those verses get started, and the melody comes to mind immediately. John was a part of that project, was on staff here at Family Life for almost two decades.

Eighteen years. And now is working with Jason, developing resources for families, writing devotions so that not only are families memorizing Scripture, but they're learning and understanding what the Scriptures are teaching and going deeper in God's Word. We've been talking about a project that you guys have been working on called 20 for 2020.

And John, just explain what that is. We know that many families struggle to talk about God's Word together, and we wanted, like with Passport to Purity, we wanted to make it easy, make it easy for parents to win. And so we've written four devotions with each verse, each of the 20 verses in 2020 that your family could memorize together. And these are devotions that can be read at the dinner table. The songs are free. We have hand motion videos that are all free for your family to use to do family devotions together. And you can go to our website at familylifetoday.com for information on how you can access the songs, the videos, the devotions.

And again, it's all free. And just imagine having 20 verses done by the end of the year. I could win a sword contest. Oh, I would beat you. I would beat you. If it's music, I would get it quicker.

Yeah, you would get it quicker. Jason, I'm wondering, you're oldest is 21 years old now, right? Yes. Were you a natural at discipling your kids? Did you grow up in a family where that's how you were raised?

I mean, how did you step into this? No, I was not a natural. And no, I didn't grow up in a home. I didn't grow up in a Christian home.

So it was all new. Like, Dave and Ann, you guys have shared, you know, you didn't grow up with that either. But I definitely struggled when I began to be convicted. Like, I needed to teach my kids. Like, most parents, Christian parents, feel that. And so I decided I was going to start having a family time with my kids. And I remember sitting in our boys' bedroom and trying to gather the boys together.

It was just two high-energy boys, as you can imagine. And doing some kind of a devotion with them or just talking about the Lord and them not listening and me getting frustrated and thinking their mom's not helping me. And so our first family devotion was a blow-up. It is discouraging, isn't it? It's like you don't want to do it again. I was so discouraged.

I'm like, okay, I'm not good at this. But I knew how important it was. And I just had learned, you know, my role as a dad and our role as parents. And I was like, okay, I really want to step into this. So I did make a commitment in my heart. Like, I'm going to persevere. And so I kept getting us together, just, you know, we do once a week. And it's kind of how we've done. And so I kept pressing into it. But a few months into it, our middle son Brandon actually quoted one of the scriptures that we talked about in the context of a situation. And I was so encouraged because I was like, I can't believe it got through.

Something got through to these boys, you know. But to see the fruit of it now over the years and that just the things that we taught them and how we were challenged by it, but God gave us what we needed to be able to do that. And now that our kids are older, we see the fruit. As a matter of fact, I just wanted to share with you guys, this month, my wife and I celebrated our 25-year anniversary. And you know, in the midst of all the things going on with the coronavirus and restaurants being shut down, usually my wife and I go out to a nice meal and we celebrate in a special way, but we were stuck at home. And so we ended up having takeout with our whole family.

And so our 25-year anniversary dinner was at home with the kids around the table. And I sat there and I just saw how God has worked in each one of their lives and how God has sustained our marriage through some hills and valleys, some major things. And I'm so thankful for every sacrifice that we ever made to keep our marriage together, for every sacrifice we ever made to pour into our kids, all the hard things we went through and the challenges we faced, because the fruit of it later, just to see our kids together and our kids walking with the Lord and see the fruit of that. And I give God the credit for it. But that's what I want to encourage all the moms and dads listening, is it's possible for you to press through those hard times in your marriage and to press through those moments like we're talking about with family devotion, that you are planting seeds, you're putting God's Word and God's truth in their heart, and they need it so desperately right now because they're hit with so much stuff in the world. And we have powerful influence in our kids' lives, and so there are the moments of harvest.

I think our 25-year anniversary was a harvest moment just to see, wow, God, look what you've done in a family that didn't grow up in a Christian home, and we weren't equipped to do this, but we just kept following you and taking steps of faith and praying, and now you've changed a generation, and I believe generations after. Way to go. Way not to quit. Praise the Lord. I've been there.

I'm sure a lot of dads and moms have been at that same place where you're trying to teach your kids the Word of God. You know that's your role. I'm called to do this. I've got to do this. And your story is similar to ours.

I had no model, so I never once saw it. All I saw my dad do was cuss and drink. So here I am as a young dad. Now I've got young little boys. I'm like, how do we do it?

So when I tried, it went the same way. They're running around. They're picking boogers out of their nose.

They're like, this is boring. This is stupid. And so my thought was, okay, I'm not good at this. I can preach. I can lead my church. I can't lead my family. And one of the things I wanted, give me a tool.

Somebody show me how to do it. You've created a tool. And also, I did not know as a young dad, Deuteronomy 6. I did not know there was a pattern laid out for us that meant you could do it while you sit at the dinner table. You could do it while you're putting in the bed.

You could do it when you walk along the road. That was the Hebrew model, which I never understood. It's the apprentice. It's along the way. That scripture came alive like, oh, so maybe it isn't going to be like other families. And I'm not saying it's right or wrong. They sit down. They have a family altar. Their kids sort of, I don't work well that way.

I can do it this way. We had fights about this because she wanted Reverend Dave to open a word for his children and expected them to go, yeah, Daddy, teach me more. She even said, just teach the sermon you gave on Sunday morning to your kids at night.

I'm like, that didn't work. I'm saying all that to say, I wanted a tool you've created. Oh, my goodness, here's a toolkit for a family, for a dad like me, right? And I'm a music guy, so to have music to help your kids learn scripture, genius, jackpot. What are you hearing from people? Yeah, have you had stories that this has worked or kids maybe can recall scripture they memorized? I've heard so many amazing stories, and people write us emails all the time. One of the greatest stories was last year I was out on a tour called the Trust Jesus Tour, and we were in Minnesota, and a family came up to me after an event. They were just waiting because they wanted to talk to me, so I finally made my way over to them. And the mom shared with me that they'd been in a really horrible car accident, and it was the mom and the two boys in the backseat. And the mom was just worried, and she was injured, and they'd called for an ambulance to come, but they were just waiting. In that moment, the child said, Mom, don't be anxious, but we need to pray. And one of our most popular seed songs is, Do Not Be Anxious About Anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God will come.

And so he knew that he wanted God's peace in that moment. He said, Mom, don't worry, we need to pray. And they told me it's because we listen to seeds, and we had this plane in our car all the time, and in that moment, when my child, when I needed to know God was there with me, my child was quoting that scripture to me, and it meant the world to our family. But we get to hear so many stories just about how God's Word is living and active, how it is at work, and these songs just embedded in the hearts of both kids and parents, and they can share them at times like that or in joyful times in all seasons.

We had a mom share with us, and every parent has had this happen. Her daughter couldn't go to sleep because she was afraid. And so she comes in and sings with her, Isaiah 41, 10, Fear not, for I am with you. They sing through that, and it calms her daughter and puts her to sleep, and it comforted her because she had already heard it so many times as well. And those words were saturating the words that were already in her heart.

They were able to just worship together and bring peace to her. Yeah. John, I've seen in you for a decade or more a passion to see dads really step up and take spiritual leadership in the home. Your conviction is that dads have the want to for the most part, but they just don't have the how to. They feel inadequate to do this.

Putting these tools together is a part of how you make it easy for dads to do this, right? Yeah, because I grew up in a great Christian home. I had the opposite experience of you guys. I mean, I think, in fact, if you could craft the perfect youth minister, I had to have had him. This guy, we looked up to at every level, and I had a great dad who loved the Lord, mom who loved the Lord, great church, loved God's word, and yet I watched plenty of my friends just walk away from the Lord after high school, walk away from their faith, and I just kept thinking we can't just only depend on what happens at church. It's like working out once a week and thinking it'll change everything.

The daily drip, as you walk, as you sit, is going to have a far greater impact than just one hour a week. So how can we make that easy, though? Because I had a great church. I grew up seeing a lot of great models. It's still intimidating as a dad to go there. It's crazy. I would rather speak to thousands of people than to try to get these little ones to get their attention. Stories help with that. That's why we've made these story-based. You start telling a story, and people get drawn in.

They want to hear it. I don't know, Bob, if you'll remember if I've told this on the radio, but I'm a young dad. My oldest three boys, my oldest was CJ, was 9 or 10, probably 10 or 11, but he hit puberty before everybody else. So he was an early puberty guy, so 11 years old, looks like a 13-year-old, taller.

So that means Austin is 9 and Cody is 6, right? We're walking through this mall, just me and the boys, and I'm sort of behind them, and I can see as we're walking through this mall, right in the middle of the mall was a magazine rack, and it was low, like eye level, right? And I see it up there, and again, we're a distance away, but I can see that right in front of that thing is a bikini cover girl magazine. I don't know what it was, but I could see a girl in a bikini, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, it's right there, and the boys are walking. And I remember thinking, huh, I wonder if CJ is old enough to be into girls yet, right? Because he's 11, and so I'm watching, and I see him look at the magazine, and then sort of turn away. The other two boys didn't even see it.

They're poking each other, whatever. So I'm like, oh, here's a moment. Here's a moment to teach, right? I said, CJ, that's normal to want to look at a pretty woman. But I remember saying to him, there's a Bible verse that says, I made a covenant with my eyes to not look upon a woman.

Job 31, right? And again, I doubt if he'll remember this moment, 11 years old, but I remember saying, I've made a covenant with my eyes. I don't look at those kind of things. CJ, I wanted to. That's normal. God made us. But I'm very careful, because that can get you in a lot of trouble. So let's make like a covenant with each other, father, son.

We're going to be very careful with that. Yeah, OK, dad, OK, walk on. And I remember thinking, there's a moment where you grabbed it as we walk along the way to teach it. And again, I would have never been able to do that without tools like you're creating to say, grab those moments, and here's a way to do it.

And you've added the music part. And the thing about it is, Dave, he will remember that. I bet he does remember that moment, because my kids will talk to me about moments when they were younger in situations like that, and I'm sure that really impacted his life. And so I do encourage parents to step into those moments. And you mentioned Deuteronomy 6, and I just want to share this verse. I believe every parent should have this memorized, because it is a model for us.

Do you have music that goes to it? I've written this actually three different times. There's three different songs to this, because this is so important for families. It says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children.

You shall talk of them when you sit at your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. So for us as families to know there's only one God, and that we as parents, it's like you guys talk about vertical marriage. I think this is a verse for vertical parenting. So if you haven't started that book yet, it might be time, because here it is. We just wrote it. I'm glad you wrote it. And we used that verse too.

I don't even know this. Okay, so that's so good. Because it starts with us, just like your marriage story, it starts with our relationship with the Lord, that we should love God and that we should know His word. And then we can teach diligently, teach it. We can have a plan, like what we're talking about here.

It doesn't matter so much how you do it, but it matters that you have a plan to be diligent. And then like you were talking about, Dave, as you go through life is when you sit at your house, when you walk, by the way, while we're driving in our cars, when you lie down, and when you rise, it's like there's so many moments for us as parents that what we do is when we get our kids in the Word, then we can have some family time, but then you have a foundation to be able to teach in those teachable moments. And so it's so awesome. So I just encourage families to know that verse, because it's as we go through life that we teach our kids about Jesus. I think one of the things that dads really struggle with, you mentioned, is being intimidated. And one of the things I tell dads is just assume it will be hard. Just start that way.

But then also come being transparent. Say, look, if you haven't been studying the Bible on your own, if you haven't been walking with the Lord, just start there and say, look, guys, I haven't been doing this well, and I want to do this better. So let's do it together. And then also embrace the phrase, I don't know. I remember when I heard Wayne Grudem, who has forgotten more theology than any of us will ever remember, when I heard him say in a seminary class, I don't know, I thought, if he can say I don't know, then I can say it. And if your kids ask a question, I've heard time and again, what if I won't be able to answer their question? Great.

Just say, you know what? Great question. I don't know.

Anybody else have any ideas? Let's go study it together. Let's come back tomorrow, talk about it again. It's okay to say I don't know. In fact, it's really healthy.

It's really good. When you think about the Scriptures, there are certain verses that I think moms and dads would just know instinctively. These are verses our kids ought to know. I mean, they ought to know John 3.16. There are certain verses. They ought to know the Great Commission.

You talked about that already. There are certain passages that ought to be locked in their heart. One of the ones that you've focused in on is from the middle of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, where Jesus is talking about being anxious about what you're going to wear, what you're going to eat. He says, don't worry about these things.

Your Father will take care of you. But then he lands it all with saying, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. You put that to music, right? Yes. Can you grab a guitar? We've got a guitar here. Can you play it for us?

I would love that. Actually, I want to share, this is my life verse. And this may be something for you guys as parents, for kids that are listening, like it's good to seek God for a life verse.

But like in this verse, it talks about, it's not in the song, but verse 32 talks about the pagans run after all these things. And I was running after things in the world, living in Nashville and music was an idol in my life. And when God turned my life around, he said, seek me first and I'm going to provide everything that you need. And that was right before the seeds ministry started. Then after that, I actually started writing some number one songs, all these things that were an idol to me.

God was first and that was off the throne. And then God brought blessing into my life. And so this is definitely one of my favorite verses and a verse I'd love every family to know and memorize. All right, grab the guitar and let's listen to how Jason has put his life verse to music for us. All right, sing that with me, here we go.

Put your hands behind your eyes, yeah. Woo, oh yeah. One more time, here we go. Oh yeah. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That's right, hey.

And all these things will bring honor to you, honor to you. Yeah, have your hands, let's take a hold. Hey, hey. One more time, hey, woo. Yeah. Hey, hey. Oh, one, two, three, four, woo.

Yes. So Dave Wilson turned our studio table into a Jim Bay here. Which I appreciate, Dave, thank you. Welcome to my life and the dashboard of our car.

I've been scolded many times. With those songs, you can hear how kids and families would just be smiling down the freeway. Absolutely. And listening to those and singing those and learning those. And I would remind parents, in your car you have a captive audience. And I'm telling you, we prayed more and listened to more good music in our car and I feel like discipleship took place in our car more than anywhere else, because they can't get out. Yeah, and that's Deuteronomy 6, right? As you walk by the way is driving in our culture, right? So it's like that is God's call, as you go, the car is an amazing place for discipleship.

So I just aim in there. Well, you guys have done an amazing job of equipping us, giving us a tool. The fact that it's all free is amazing.

20 songs, 20 verses, 80 devotionals, hand motions for these, and it's all online. You can go to our website at familylifetoday.com and find out more about this. Thank you guys for being here and for sharing this whole project with us. We're excited for you.

Yeah, there you go. Thanks so much. Hey, Bob, I just want to say this one thing to finish up. This was on my heart to share is family life has been such a blessing to our family. We did Passport to Purity with all of our kids. My 18-year-old son is going to see his girlfriend in Nashville tomorrow. We're going to have a talk tonight.

We still talk about Passport to Purity. We've been to a weekend to remember the victories that we've shared for all those on staff at Family Life, for you guys, for all that you're pouring into people. It's making a difference. It's changed our family, and you guys have been a part of it. We have a We Still Do plaque hanging in our bathroom with our marriage date. We were at the 40-year anniversary of Family Life, and we're just so thankful. And to everyone at Family Life, just please receive a thank you from the Hauser family. What you're doing is making a difference, and you've blessed us, and thank you so much for having us here. Yeah, it's been great to partner with you through the years, and we're grateful for all you've done. And I hope all of our listeners will access for free what you guys have created in the 20 Verses in 2020 project that you've been working on. There's a link on our website at familylifetoday.com. Again, it's all free, the devotionals, the songs. This is really something we're all committed to. I mean, just imagine the outcome, your family at the end of 2020 being able to go through 20 verses you've memorized together.

That's a great project for all of us. So find the 20 Verses in 2020 link. When you go to our website at familylifetoday.com. Again, that's familylifetoday.com. And while you're on the website, also take advantage of the Take Your Marriage from Good to Great content that's also available for free, a couple of online video courses, some messages you can listen to and download.

There's a downloadable e-book. All of these resources can help you strengthen your marriage and fill in some of the gaps, help you deal with some of the conflict that builds up in a marriage relationship. There are biblical ways for conflict to be resolved in a marriage. And some of these messages talk about that. One of the online courses takes you through conflict resolution.

Find out more about the Take Your Marriage from Good to Great content that is available for free on our website at familylifetoday.com. And everybody who gets access to that content, you sign up to receive it. You are automatically eligible. You're entered into a contest.

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You can enter often. Official rules can be found at familylife.com slash good contest, so check out the Take Your Marriage from Good to Great content that's available on our website at familylifetoday.com. And then we'd like to think that every one of you who's a regular listener to Family Life Today would get a copy of my new book, which is called Love Like You Mean It. It's a look at what the Bible has to say about how we should understand and define love, which goes a lot deeper than the superficial approach to love that is promoted in our culture.

The Bible has a clear description of what real love looks like, and we explore that in this book. The book is our gift to you when you make a donation today to support the ongoing work of Family Life Today. Your donations are helping hundreds of thousands of married couples, families, grandparents. You're helping us effectively develop godly marriages and families who change the world. So when you donate to support that effort, we'll send you a copy of the book Love Like You Mean It as a thank you gift. You can donate online at familylifetoday.com, or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY.

Be sure to ask for your copy of the book when you make a donation. And we appreciate your partnership with us here in the Ministry of Family Life Today. Now, tomorrow we want to talk about important conversations that parents, especially moms, should be having with their sons during adolescence. Vicki Courtney is going to join us to walk us through that, and I hope you can be here for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our hosts, Dave and Anne Wilson, I'm Bob Lapine. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a production of Family Life of Little Rock, Arkansas, a crew ministry. Help for today, hope for tomorrow.