Paul urges parents to bring up children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Parents are teachers. But do little ears pay attention to everything mom and dad say?
About 10 years ago, Donald Joy was a guest on the “Focus on the Family” radio program. In his conversation with the show’s host, Dr. Joy told an amusing story about his grandson. When the boy was two or three years old, he saw his grandfather remove a hairpiece. “Grandpa,” Jason said, “take my hair off too.” Dr. Joy replied, “You are young. Your hair doesn’t come off.” Feeling his head the little guy answered, “Well, when I’m a grandpa, I’ll take it off.”
Jason’s desire to imitate his grandfather—even in something distasteful—reminds us of the great responsibility laid on parents and grandparents. Children come into the world with few preconceptions about right and wrong. In their innocence and trust of beloved adults, they assume that whatever parents and grandparents do is good. This means that my conduct, whether worthy of imitation or not, is shaping the value system of the child in my family. In a psalm attributed to Asaph, the Bible says that the Lord “established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (Ps. 78:5-7).
The mom or dad who thinks that verbal communication alone satisfies the need to teach “the next generation” has misunderstood how children learn. Little ears do hear part of what we say. But little eyes see everything we do!