By bro Lee Tian Seng
Parents must cultivate the love, desire, and habit of Bible study in their children from young.
We should teach our children to love the Word of God. The Psalmist exclaimed that he love the law of God.
Psalms 119:97-99 - Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.
To cultivate love for the Word of God, we need to spend time studying the Bible with our children. If they sense that you do not enjoy studying the Bible, they will not be keen to study. If you make Bible study interesting, they will love to study the Bible. Parents should use Bible study materials that are age-appropriate so that they can understand what you teach them. For example, we tell Bible stories when they are toddlers, and then progress to reading the Bible. If they do not understand, it is likely that they will lose interest in Bible study.
We should also develop in them a desire for the Word of God, just like Christians who drink the milk of the Word like new born babies.
1 Peter 2:2 - As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.
Babies will cry when they are hungry, and will not stop till they are fed with milk. To be hungry for the Word of God, we need to know what we lack if we do not have it. First, we will miss the truth about God and His plan of salvation for us.
John 8:32 - And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Romans 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
We will also not have His instructions on how to live righteously before Him.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We need to tell our children what they are going to miss if they do not study the Bible. This will create a desire in them to want to study.
Besides cultivating the love and desire for the Word of God, we should develop in our children the habit of daily Bible study. The Bible teaches that the righteous delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it daily.
Psalms 1:1-2 - Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
As parents, we should set an example for our children to follow. Children will not be convinced of the importance of daily Bible study when they do not see their parents doing it. When children are young, we should study the Bible together with them. It could be reading the Bible before bedtime or studying on a series of lesson using a workbook.
We must not neglect to develop love, desire and the habit of Bible study in our children because knowing the Word of God is most important education they need in life.