Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question what is the first step towards

discipling your kids I asked this

question prompted by two things the the

first is that I realize for many parents

the idea that they are supposed to

disciple their kids to teach their kids

theology to help them wrestle and

navigate through life's deeper questions

to open the Bible and do family worship

and teach them the stories of God's

faithfulness is pretty intimidating most

parents don't feel prepared for it don't

feel trained for it and don't feel like

they have the time that life is too busy

too chaotic and so you might find

yourself going well well well how do I

just take a step in that direction is

there a small thing that I can do to

move in that direction and the second

reason I asked this question is it's

prompted by an article I read in the

Atlantic this week because the answer is

the first step is to get your kids

reading to get them reading anything at

all to do some reading that's because

the article I read was by Rose harwit

who's written on this extensively we've

covered articles of her in the past

looking at how the future fut generation

is reading less and less we are

increasingly becoming a culture with a

lowering tolerance for books I'll throw

this stat at you in 1971 college

students were asked why are you in

college and 73% of them said I'm in

college to develop a meaningful

philosophy of life to think about life's

deeper questions to wrestle with meaning

and purpose and those kinds of things

only 37% said they were in college to

gain

financially well fast forward to 2015

the same question was asked of college

students and

82% of them said I'm in college to gain

financially we've shifted as a culture

if your primary and purpose in life is

to make money to pay the bills to buy

things reading is always going to feel

like a nuisance of course the problem

with that from a Christian perspective

is that God has communicated with us in

in a book we're supposed to be readers

it's inescapably true that if you want

to grow in your faith you're going to

have to be a reader the revelation of

God is there for you in the scriptures

Psalm 19 says the heavens are declaring

the glory of God but it goes on to say

if a man wants to know his hidden faults

to be kept from presumptuous sins he has

to go to the scriptures for that reading

is the key to discipleship and if you

can't get your kid to read if they won't

read They're not going to translate that

to the Bible so as parents we have to

understand it is vitally important that

our kids are competent readers who

actually can learn and enjoy learning

through the written word so of course

that begs the question how do we do that

well there's a couple of ways as parents

I want to call you to but all of these

ways are under the idea that Deuteronomy

6 says it is your job to disciple your

kids and you do that through the Bible

which involves reading so here we go

three ways you can do that number one

become a reader yourself your kids need

to see you reading books especially

preferably reading the Bible kids catch

more than they're taught right more is

caught than taught that's what we say so

can your parent can your kids remember a

time where they saw their parents

reading their Bible reading at all are

you modeling that true learning and

entertainment comes through a screen or

are you actually modeling the value of

sitting down with a book of investing

time and energy into reading especially

reading the Bible listen you don't just

read the Bible for you you read it for

your family you model that you Echo what

the Apostle Paul said when he said

imitate me as I also imitate Jesus

you're saying to your kids learn from me

the way I'm learning from Jesus here's

the second thing read the Bible to your

kids listen there are so many compelling

tools out there Jesus story book Bible

the gospel Bible there's so many great

tools out there that parents can use to

read the stories of God's faithfulness

to their kids my family we do it right

after dinner so right after dinner as

the kids get their dessert they sit at

the table and I read a story and I ask

each kid a question about the story it

takes five minutes how much do they

remember I have no idea

but here's what I know they have a far

better chance of remembering the stories

of God's faithfulness if I read those

stories 300 times than if I never read

them at all read the Bible to your kids

trust God's grace and the Holy Spirit to

let it sink in Jesus said a sewer goes

out to sew he throws the seed some of it

falls on this kind of soil and that kind

of soil and that kind of soil his job is

to throw out the seed that's you

with your kids and then finally get your

kids reading here's a hack that I'll

give you as a parent my 8-year-old son

Graham is a terrific reader but he

doesn't love to read he'd rather play

video games he'd rather play Legos there

are other things more interesting to him

well Graham's bedtime is 8:00 so what I

said to Graham is I'll tell you what if

from 8:00 to 8:30 you will read I'll let

you stay up if you don't want to read

you can go to bed that's your bedtime

eight o'clock but if you want bonus time

the only way you get that is by reading

I instituted that rule three weeks ago

he just finished his second novel his

second novel and he's loving it and you

know the only time he reads from 8 to

8:30 because outside of that time he'd

rather play Legos he'd rather play video

games he'd rather hang out with his dad

but 30 minutes of reading is gearing him

up for a lifetime of learning through

the written word and hopefully in a

ability to learn about God from the

scriptures parents you cannot raise

children who can't read Because those

are children who will not grow in their

faith you want to disciple your kids get

them reading hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wake up lookup

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