The Four R’s of Parenting by Dick Woodward (www.icmmbc.org)
Who is responsible for the education of children? Moses places the responsibility for the education of children squarely on the shoulders of their parents. In many cultures today, the state is responsible for the education of children. Regardless of the beliefs and convictions of parents, in countries like China, Vietnam, Cambodia and North Korea, the state educates children to be atheists and communists.
During the Cold War years, the hearts of many godly parents were broken because they lived in the countries of Eastern Europe that were controlled by the former Soviet Union. The state was only too happy to accept the responsibility for the education of their children. This was also true in Nazi Germany. Those godly parents would have given almost anything to live in the free world where they could have assumed the responsibility to educate and nurture their children according to their beliefs and values.
Sometimes, devout parents in free democratic countries believe the state is responsible for the education of their children because they pay taxes. Others believe the church is responsible for the spiritual education of their children. In this great sermon, Moses is telling us emphatically that God has given the responsibility for the education of children to their parents.
Have you ever wondered why God has committed the responsibility for the education and spiritual nurture of children to their parents? As you reflect upon the answer to that question, some simple arithmetic may be helpful. There are 8760 hours in a year. Since children receive about thirty minutes of instruction in the average Sunday school, if their ONLY source of spiritual nurture is Sunday school, they are spending .02%–or one fifth of one percent of their time–being spiritually nurtured. If they receive no spiritual nurture other than Sunday school, then 99.8% of their time is spent being nurtured in a secular context.
