Good morning, fellow disciple-making parents! Welcome to the first edition of The Trailhead, a devotional designed to help you start each new month focused and strong. Like a trailhead marks the beginning of a journey, The Trailhead devotional exists to reorient your hearts as a new week begins—a week mixed with joy, challenges, and opportunities to lead your family towards Jesus.
For our first devotional, let’s look at this challenge from Deuteronomy 6:4-7:
“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.”
Parents Need Discipleship Too
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. It’s easy to read this passage and only focus on the section about teaching your kids to love the Lord. However, if that’s all we read about, we would miss a big part of what Moses actually taught. Parents, we’re also called to love God with all of our heart, soul, and might. It’s not a one-time transaction at the moment of our salvation. A loving and healthy relationship with the Lord is growing here and now. This happens as we spend time in God’s Word, participate in a local church, serve others, pray regularly, and practice other spiritual disciplines.
Discipleship in the Everyday Moments
Now let’s look at the other side of this challenge. God also calls on parents to teach their kids what it means to love Him. The words of this passage reveal something profound about discipleship in the home: discipleship typically happens in the ordinary moments. Sure, our kids will have mountain-top experiences, like at Vacation Bible School or on a retreat, where God works in new ways. But spiritual growth usually occurs in the simple moments of family life, like eating together, driving to school, family devotions, and learning to forgive each other. From my experience, God does some of his best work when we are on a steady diet of Biblical truth and committed to spiritual growth.
My encouragement to you today is this: You have what it takes to point your kids to Jesus! God has equipped you with the spiritual gifts needed to be a leader in your household. Take it one step at a time. And be ready to capitalize on the little moments when you can show them what it means to follow Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Have a great week leading your family!
Related Articles:
Family Discipleship: A Biblical Guide for Parents
Discipleship Beyond the Bible Stories
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