When Every Space and Opportunity Turns Into a School of Righteousness

Daily Devotional – Wednesday, December 29, 2021

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Deuteronomy 6:7 (NKJV)

I credit my mother and my grandfather with planting the precious seed of faith in me. Their prayers and incessant teaching of God’s word gave me the Christian foundation I needed at a tender age.

My mother taught me to read and respect the Bible. She also instructed her children how to pray and how to sings hymns. She inculcated in us love for the church. Today, I marvel at how my faith habits and practices are similar to hers.   During school holidays, my siblings and I would visit the countryside to spend time with our grandparents. The old man was a real soldier of faith. He was a walking Bible. We learned lessons of faith from him in the house, in the farm and in the grazing fields.

Schools of Righteousness Everywhere, Anytime

Mother and grandpa were the embodiment of one of my most favourite Bible passages. Here it is:

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

While God wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, He wanted the Israelites to cherish these divine principles in their hearts. They were to memorize, recite and repeat the teachings of God.

That was not all. Every Israelite parent would be a teacher of the law to his or her offspring. Every place and time was an opportunity for inculcating the scripture in the hearts of the young ones.

Modern Schools of Righteousness

If we lived by this fundamental Christian teaching, parents would teach God’s word to their children in the living room, kitchen, bedroom and outdoors. The farm and the playing field would be a Bible school.

The walk to the market or the church; the exciting nature walks; the visits to the national parks and zoos, and hospital visitation would offer the best opportunities for teaching godliness to young souls.

I thank God for experiencing this type of education in my family, though not perfectly. I try as much as possible to replicate this in my children. I hope they will do the same with my grandchildren.

By God grace, we “should bind God’s words as a sign on our hands, and they should be as frontlets between our eyes. We should write them on the doorposts of our house and on our gates.”  (Deuteronomy 6:8-9). Let us turn every space and opportunity into school of righteousness..

Almighty Father, saturate me with your transforming word and help me to inculcate it in my offspring and those around me.