Teach Them Well

Many mornings, I have great intentions of starting our day well and then transition to watching it slowly spin out of control. For me, that can look like one child getting into another child’s space, another who cannot find a pencil, the other who refuses to do their chores! And on and on.

… as soon as I find myself feeling that loss of control, my natural desire is to push them away, to find some space, go to another room, to find some headphones! But in recent years, that’s been my cue to pull them closer, to really listen, and to love them harder.

My mother-in-law has this phrase that is so wonderful, but she maybe doesn’t even know how deep it is… it’s this —

“They just don’t know.”

She always means it in an empathetic way, as if to say, 

“they haven’t learned that yet”

“you haven’t taught them that yet”

“they genuinely don’t quite understand”

…and always as a way to cover a multitude of sins with love.

To teach our disciples well, we need to love them well. To pull them closer when we really just want to escape the discomfort. Love is action. And at the end of the day, following Jesus is all about love. Love gives birth to more love, which, in turn, results in faithfulness and obedience.

I’m writing this from a mothering perspective, but the same can be said of anyone we have been in a discipleship relationship with. In the grand picture, we have a very short time to impact our disciples (young or older) before they leave our more intimate + direct care.

The big moments - the grand + flashy ones - well, they might be prettier, more comfortable, more shareable, but the everyday ones are usually messy, imperfect, more hidden. But that’s also where the template of Deuteronomy 6:4-7 can happen:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down, and when you rise."

When you want to push away, pull your disciples closer.

Where you can love them well.

And teach them well.

—

Some favorite resources of ours that have helped us focus on the small (but big!), everyday moments lately:

+ this song  “Teach Them” by Seeds Family Worship

+ this Morning Time curriculum

+ this Advent guide

+ this Bible Project video - “Shema”