15^th November

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Yesterday, BBC news released very disturbing facts about the causes of death in the UK. According to the BBC news statistics, the most common cause of death in 5 – 19 year olds in the UK is suicide¹. It is a disturbing fact that shouldn’t be overlooked, as painful as it is. Where has it gone wrong? What are we not doing? These are valid questions and ones that definitely need answering. Yet our responsibility is to initiate the change in our homes, both through praying for our nation’s children, but also through teaching our own children Godly principles, teaching them that they are loved and teaching them they have a hope and a future. If we don’t teach them, then where else will they learn these values? Bob Talbert comments on this topic and says “teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them whats counts is best.”² In other words, if we just give children an educational upbringing, we will have a nation of clever kids, without a purpose, destiny and with statistics such as the ones the BBC published, if not worse.

It is our responsibility, parents responsibility, uncles and aunties, godparents, cousins, brothers, sisters and friends, Sunday School teachers and family in Christ, to pour Christ’s teachings, hope, love, and purpose into our young people’s hearts as a matter of urgency! As today’s verse says and as the Jewish culture still does, let us too ‘talk about them (Godly principles and values: God’s law in context)) when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.’ Let us make it our purpose to raise the next generations of world changers for Jesus.