Deuteronomy 6:1-9: a reflection

1Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess; 2that you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you—you, your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4Hear, Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 6These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; 7and 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 up. 8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.

These verses contain the great command that stands at the heart of Israel's faith: Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. But notice what comes next: These words shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit at home, when you walk, when you lie down, and when you rise. The command to love God is joined to a command to keep his words on our own hearts and pass them on to our children, woven through the whole of daily life.

Notice the order and the reach of this. First, God's words are to be on our own hearts; we cannot pass on what we do not ourselves hold. And then they are to be taught diligently to our children, not in a formal, occasional way, but woven naturally through the whole of daily life, spoken of at home and on the way, at rising and lying down. Faith was to be passed on not merely through formal instruction, but through the ordinary conversation of a life saturated with God's word.

That shapes how we pass faith to the next generation. First, God's words must be on our own hearts; the faith we would pass on must be real in us. And then it is passed on best not through occasional formal lessons, but through the natural, ongoing conversation of daily life, as God's word is woven through our homes and our everyday moments. If you would pass faith to your children or to those you influence, first keep God's words on your own heart; then let them be a natural part of your daily conversation, spoken of along the way, not reserved for formal occasions. Faith is passed on through hearts that hold God's word and lives that speak of it naturally; hold it in your heart, and weave it through your days.

Lord, at the heart of your commands stands the call to love you with all my heart, soul, and might; and joined to it, the call to keep your words on my own heart and to teach them diligently to my children, woven through the whole of daily life, spoken of at home and on the way, at lying down and rising up. Show me the order and reach of this. First, your words are to be on my own heart, for I cannot pass on what I do not myself hold. And then they are to be passed on not through occasional formal lessons, but through the natural, ongoing conversation of daily life. If I would pass faith to my children or to those I influence, help me first keep your words on my own heart, so that the faith I pass on is real in me; and then help me weave them naturally through my days, spoken of along the way, not reserved for formal occasions. Let me hold your word in my heart, and speak of it naturally, that faith may be passed to those who come after. Write your words on my heart, Lord.