Give Them More Christ

Day 1 — Teach Their Hearts What to Love

Scripture

“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.” — Deuteronomy 6:4–5

Meaning

Before Moses speaks about children, parenting, or education, he begins with God. There is one true and living God, and every part of life belongs to Him. But Moses does not merely command Israel to know the truth about God. He commands them to love Him with everything they are.

That is the ultimate goal for the next generation. We want our children to know Scripture and understand sound doctrine, but knowledge is not the end. The goal is a heart that loves God. Christian discipleship therefore asks a bigger question than, “What does my child know?” It asks, “What is my child learning to love?” Because what our children love will eventually shape what they pursue, worship, and obey.

Meditation

• What does my life communicate about what I love most?

• Am I more concerned with my children’s earthly success or their love for God?

• What competing loves are shaping the next generation around me?

Me

• I will make loving God—not merely knowing about Him—the goal.

• I will examine what my priorities teach others to value.

• I will point the next generation toward the One who is worthy of their whole heart.

Prayer

Lord, teach me to love You with all my heart, soul, and strength, and use my life to show the next generation that You are worthy of theirs. Amen.

Day 2 — Let Them See the Truth in You

Scripture

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…” — Deuteronomy 6:6–7a

Meaning

Notice the order: before Moses says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children,” he says, “These words…shall be on your heart.” Before God’s Word is taught through us, it must first be working in us.

Our children learn from more than what we say. They watch how we respond when angry, exhausted, disappointed, or wronged. They notice whether we forgive, whether we repent, and whether the Christ we worship on Sunday matters at home on Monday. The most powerful curriculum in your home may be the life your children watch you live.

God does not call parents to perfection, but He does call us to faithfulness. The next generation needs to see not flawless Christians, but genuine Christians whose lives are continually being shaped by the Word they teach.

Meditation

• Is God’s Word visibly shaping my own heart and life?

• What are my children learning about Christianity by watching me?

• Where do my words and example need greater consistency?

Me

• I will let God’s Word work in me before expecting it to work through me.

• I will model repentance when I fail rather than pretending to be perfect.

• I will remember that my everyday life is teaching even when I am not speaking.

Prayer

Father, put Your Word upon my heart. Make my life consistent with the truth I teach, and let the next generation see a genuine love for Christ in me. Amen.

Day 3 — Disciple Them in the Ordinary

Scripture

“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.” — Deuteronomy 6:7

Meaning

Moses describes discipleship as a way of life. When you sit. When you walk. When you lie down. When you rise. God’s truth is meant to fill the ordinary rhythms of our days.

That means discipleship is bigger than family devotions. When children fail, we can teach them about identity. When they succeed, humility. When they are hurt, forgiveness. When they sin, repentance. Ordinary life continually gives us opportunities to interpret the world through God’s truth.

And those opportunities matter because our children are already being discipled. Friends, entertainment, social media, celebrities, advertisers, and algorithms are teaching them what to believe, value, and desire. The question is not whether our children will be discipled. The question is who will disciple them—and toward what?

Meditation

• Who or what is presently shaping the loves of the children around me?

• Am I intentionally bringing God’s truth into ordinary conversations?

• What everyday situation could become an opportunity for discipleship today?

Me

• I will look for opportunities to bring Scripture into ordinary life.

• I will pay attention to the voices discipling the next generation.

• I will help them learn to see all of life through God’s truth.

Prayer

Lord, give me wisdom to recognize the ordinary opportunities You provide and faithfulness to bring Your truth into them. Amen.

Day 4 — Give Them a Chorus of Faithful Voices

Scripture

“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” — Psalm 145:4

Meaning

Parents are the primary disciplers of their children, but God never intended them to be the only faithful voices children hear. Deuteronomy 6 begins, “Hear, O Israel.” God placed families within a community where His truth could be reinforced from one generation to another.

Under the New Covenant, that community is first and foremost the local church. Children need faithful parents, but they also benefit from grandparents, pastors, teachers, youth leaders, and older Christians who know them, pray for them, encourage them, and point them toward Christ.

There is enormous power when a child hears the same truth from a chorus of faithful voices: Dad says, “Jesus is King.”Mom says it. The church says it. Their Christian teacher says, “Jesus is King here too.”

Meditation

• What faithful Christian voices surround the next generation in my life?

• Am I deeply connected to a local church where those relationships can grow?

• Whose children could I help encourage and point toward Christ?

Me

• I will value the local church as essential to raising the next generation.

• I will intentionally surround my children with faithful Christian examples.

• I will seek to become a faithful voice pointing other children toward Jesus.

Prayer

Father, surround the next generation with faithful men and women who will reinforce Your truth and continually point them to Christ. Amen.

Day 5 — Do What You Can; Trust God to Do What You Cannot

Scripture

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” — Romans 10:17

Meaning

There is something no Christian parent, church, pastor, teacher, or school can do: give a child a new heart. A child can memorize Scripture, understand Christian doctrine, behave well, and receive an excellent Christian education—and still need to be born again.

Only God can open blind eyes. Only God can make the spiritually dead alive. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Yet the sovereign God who alone saves commands us to faithfully place His Word before the next generation. So we teach. We discipline. We pray. We model. We correct. We encourage. We give them the gospel again and again and again. Then we ask God to do what only God can do.

Eventually every report card will be forgotten, every diploma will gather dust, and every career will end. But their souls will live forever.

Meditation

• Am I trusting methods and environments to accomplish what only God can do?

• Am I faithfully putting the gospel before the next generation?

• Where do I need to entrust a child’s heart more fully to God?

Me

• I will faithfully do what God has commanded and trust Him with the results.

• I will give the next generation the gospel again and again.

• I will pray for God to give what I cannot: new hearts that love Christ.

Prayer

Sovereign Lord, help me faithfully give the next generation Your truth and my life. Do what only You can do: give them new hearts, bring them savingly to Jesus, and graciously give them more Christ. Amen.