The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - 4 Opportunities to Instruct Your Children

Episode Date: July 10, 2020

Passing on the faith to your children in today’s culture is not easy. In this episode, Jeff draws from the Old Testament to share 4 opportunities to instruct your children in the faith, and to help them live out the Gospel in a world that often opposes it. Snippet from the Show Make the most of every opportunity, know what the will of the Lord is, and pass that on to you children. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavens show, episode 173, four opportunities to instruct your children. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Well, thank you for joining me once again as we talk about all things discipleship, all things Bible and evangelization. Always a pleasure to have you join me as we discuss these very, very important topics. Well, you're probably wondering why in the world did I choose for opportunities to instruct your children? If you know me, you know that all of my girls,

three of them are out of the home, and they are adults now, and yet I still think about opportunities to instruct my children. I am so blessed because I have three grandchildren, and I'm finding myself in a situation where I'm getting opportunities to instruct my grandchildren in the ways of the Lord as part of our heritage. We want to pass on the faith, and a lot of people are confused or simply don't know, how do I instruct my children? You know, what are the opportunities that the Lord affords me to do this? Well, I want to talk about that today with one particular Bible verse from the Old Testament that really gives a clear-cut plan on four opportunities every single day to instruct your children. And it doesn't have to be, you know,

long instruction like sit down kids. I've got an hour teaching that I'm going to give you. But there are some very natural opportunities every single day to instruct your children and do pass on to faith. And that's what it's all about, really, as far as our nuclear families go. And I got to thinking, I received an email this last week from John. And John says, it's kind of interesting. John comments on my show, my previous show on how the church can double in five years. Go back and listen to that. I did. I said that. We can double the church in five years. And my point was in that show that if every one of us in the Catholic Church were to bring just one person into the church and stand up there on the Easter vigil and be incorporated into the body of Christ and to receive the sacraments of initiation, and that is baptism and that is confirmation in the Eucharist, if we had five years to do it and we just brought one, in, we would double in five years. Now, it's a little bit of tongue in cheek because it seems so simple.

And what I'm proposing is that each and every one of us in the next five years would simply bring someone into the church. I don't think that that's that hard, really. I don't think it's that hard to do it in one year. But five years, wow. If we can't find an opportunity to bring somebody into the church in five years, we're in trouble. We really are. And John writes me, about that show, and he brings up a couple of points. But I want to clarify something after reading his email. John says, if the Catholic Church adopts a direct evangelization method, they are going to have a hard time. The Catholic Church has historically in America grown in two ways, John says. Number one, by integrating new immigrants, and number two, through active members having children who themselves

become Catholic. Without children, John says, being indoctrinated early into the church. It's a hard religion to sell to an adult. Americans having less children and the decline of immigration into this country, I don't see how growing the church is likely. That's what John says. And I must respectfully disagree. Because John, and I know where you're coming from in this, in the past, it's true. We have grown through immigrants coming into the United States, and they were Catholic. They came from Italy or Ireland or some other part of the world. And certainly through having children, we grow as a church. But those are not, those are not the only way that we grow as a church. if we grow simply by having children or inviting immigrants into the country, yeah, we probably are

not going to grow. But I wonder, you know, I wonder what other ways we have, you know, to share the faith. And what I, what I proposed in that, in that podcast was that we would actually pick up the corigma and we would proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to people. And John, what you're writing about is exactly what I think the problem is, and that is that most Catholics think that that is simply how we grow. We have children, we raise them up, or immigrants come into the country. But I would propose to you that the way that we grow, in addition to what you're saying, is by sharing the gospel. And this is the problem that many Catholics don't share the gospel with other people, and many Catholics don't even understand the basic proclamation of the gospel. So I stand,

on my argument that we need to get out of this rut and begin to share the gospel. And check that podcast. And I have a number of podcasts on the Chirigma, the proclamation of the gospel, and how we should go about it. But picking up on your theme, John, about passing on the faith, I'm just going to riff on that. And I'm going to talk about four opportunities to instruct your children, because certainly that is important. And I'm not denying that. when you look into the Old Testament, oh, by the way, before I get into this, if you do want the show notes and the scriptures that I use on each and every show, all you have to do is text my name, one complete name, Jeff Kaven's, and the number that you text it to is 3377. That's 3377. We'll get you on the

list and you'll get all of the show notes for every single show. Well, the scripture that I want to kind of riff on this week comes from Deuteronomy chapter six versus six and seven and this this scripture comes at a very important point in Israel's history and that important point was when the children of Israel had come out of Egypt and they had gone through 40 years in the wilderness in the book of numbers and they are about to step into the book of Joshua Moses isn't going to lead them across the Jordan, Moses disobeyed the Lord, and as a result of it, he was not honored with that task of bringing them into the promised land. That would fall to Joshua. So as you read Joshua, you'll see Joshua, the great leader, who really leans on the word of God, and every single word

that the Lord gave, and he brings them into the promised land. That's the book of Joshua. what. So, Deuteronomy historically is written by Moses. It's attributed to Moses, and Moses is kind of giving his last speech before they come into the land filled with Canaanites, where they worship foreign gods, they sacrifice children, they intermarried. They're facing quite a task, not unlike America today, where we're raising our children in an atmosphere where there is child sacrifice, abortion. They're raising their children in an atmosphere where intermarriage is looked upon as something not so important, and that's one of the ways, John, that we actually lose our children to the world. And we're raising our children in an atmosphere where people

worship multiple gods, whether it's the god of power, money, sex, music, entertainment, you name it. So in the same way that the children of Israel were facing an uphill battle in raising their children in a foreign land, in a land that is foreign in terms of ideology, that's what we're facing here today. So Moses gives us some really good advice on four opportunities to raise our children when he says in Deuteronomy 6 versus 6 and 7 and these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise there in Deuteronomy 6 most

Moses gives us four opportunities to pass on the faith, which are four opportunities that are opportunities that every single day provides for us. We have these four opportunities literally every single day. So how you put it into practice when you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you get up, these are the great opportunities, the great opportunities. So let me go through these four with you, and maybe I'll give a few examples of what I've done in my own life with my three daughters. The first one is when you sit at home. Now, your home is in Jewish tradition called a temple in miniature, miktashmaat. It's a temple in miniature, and that's what our homes are.

Our homes are a safe place where we can protect our children and from the outside influences. That is if we monitor their smartphones and we monitor, you know, the internet and cable television. We can actually make it a safe haven in our homes. But that takes a little bit of work as far as overseeing how our children interface with the ideas of the world. But there are some opportunities when you sit in your home to share the faith with your children. And I would recommend that you share the faith in bite-sized quantities. You know, the last thing our children want to look forward to every single day is a half an hour or an hour lecture from mom and dad. But there are some opportunities in the home, for example, dinner.

Dinner is a great opportunity. and it can be a requirement, actually, in our home that we're going to eat together. At least one meal, which is typically dinner, we're going to meet together. And this can be a challenge because a lot of extracurricular activities are around the dinner hour. And consequently, people just go to a fast food restaurant, pick something up and gobble it down, and they get back in the car and go to soccer practice or whatever it might be. But I think if we use some creativity, we can ensure that at least most of the time, we can gather around the table once a day, and it's there that you can share the gospel with your children. And that doesn't mean that you sit down and say, okay, kids, turn to John 316. I'm going to give you a little bit of the gospel today.

But oftentimes, in conversation, crisis comes up. Crisis at school was something that happened at school or something happened. on the playing field of sports, or if your children are a little bit older in relationships, I guess that's any age, relationships, whether it be dating relationships or relationships in the classroom, maybe they had been teased or put down or somebody's tweeting out messages about them that are hurtful. That's an opportunity where you can comfort them and you can share some things about Jesus Christ with them or one of the saints. Another way that you can do this in your home on a daily basis is to be aware of what the liturgical calendar is affording you. What I mean by that is it might be a feast day, a particular saint or a particular happening of the Lord, you know,

an experience of the Lord that you can bring that into a conversation. So knowing the gospel, reading of the day can be really, really important. Now, my wife and I, we check up on the gospel reading every single morning. And so that gospel reading is something that reminds us throughout the day of a truth that could be brought into a discussion. So when you walk or when you sit at your home, you have dinner time as an opportunity, but you also have relaxation or entertainment. Maybe it's watching television or a commercial comes up, and you can use that as a launching point to contrast the way the world thinks and what we think as Christians. Maybe it's in the course of daily chores.

It's cleaning up the dishes at dinner or cleaning rooms or cleaning out the garage. I remember growing up in Bloomington, Minnesota, and at the time, to be honest with you, I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy it at all, but about every month my dad would make me and my sisters clean the garage with him. And no, I didn't like cleaning the garage, but it was an opportunity for my dad to pass on truth to me. And perhaps you've heard me say it before and it lingers still in my thinking. My dad would always tell me he would say, Bub, which he called me, he said, Bob, the only free cheese is on a mouse, trap. Profound, but it really did stick with me, and that is if you're looking for a free

piece of cheese in the world, remember that it just might be on a mouse trap. So when you sit in your home, look for opportunities, quick, pithy opportunities to pass on the faith to your children with the gospel of the day or another scripture that comes to mind. The second way that Moses reminds us about passing on the faith is when you walk along the road, when you walk along the road. Now, what does that correspond to? Well, chores, for example, as I mentioned, sitting at home, but perhaps an errand. You know, many times, either mom or dad will say, we need to pick this up at the store. Can you go get some meat? Can you go get some flour, whatever it might be? We need eggs in the morning. It is an opportunity to invite your kids to go with you, to go with you in the

car, to the store, to pick up something, and that can be an opportunity on the road where you can share something. Listen to their concerns. Listen to what they're saying. A lot of kids will complain that we as parents don't listen to them. And so part of passing on the faith is listening to them and pray that they will bring up those things that are troublesome in their life or the curiosities they have about the world. So going to the store can be a really great opportunity. I remember one time when my daughter, Carly and I, went to, no, it was. It was my middle daughter, Jackie. We went up to the grocery store, and as I paid for the food items, the lady at the store gave me too much change. And Jackie was standing right there. And we got out to the car and

they looked at the change. And I said, oh, no, I said, the lady back there gave us too much change to which Jackie was like, you know, wow, that's great. You know, we got, we had too much change. And I said, no, no, no, no. We have to go and give back the money. It's not ours. It belongs to the store. which brought up some questions by Jackie, and I had to explain to her that it's more important for us to be honest, because everything that we do is as unto the Lord, and the Lord sees this, and our integrity is important, justice is important for us to exercise, and so we both walk back into the store, and I said to the lady, you gave me too much change. Now, she was really surprised and said, oh, wow, that's honest.

Thank you. Because you see, at the end of the day, that lady at the cashier counter there, she would have had to give an account as to why there was, you know, $10, $15 missing from the till. So I made her day as well and taught a lesson to my daughter. Another way that you can do this along the road is on the way to church. And many times when we were going to church on Sunday morning, we would turn off the radio, and we had pre-read the gospel reading, and we had an opportunity to talk to the kids about the gospel reading for today and remind them that after we hear the gospel reading in Mass, think about how this applies to your

life. Think about your circumstances at school, among your friends, among siblings. Think about that. Another opportunity that we took when we were raising the kids was we had to drive them to school daily. They went to a Catholic school, and we would pick up some of their friends. And so by the time we made our rounds, we had three or four other kids in the car, and oftentimes I would play praise music. And praise music set the atmosphere. And you could tell that they were enjoying the music because it was contemporary, and that was an opportunity as well to share the gospel on the road, sort of speak. So those are two ways that Moses mentions when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. Now, when we come back from the break, I've got two other

ones, two other opportunities that Moses mentions, and I'll give you a couple of examples of how I use that, and I think it will be helpful for you as well. You're listening. to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, we're Jackie and Bobby Angel with Ascension Presents, and we wrote a book. Yay! It's on discernment, which is figuring out the will of God in your life, which can be an exciting and yet exhausting endeavor.

It's called Pray Decide and Don't Worry, Five Steps to Discerning God's Will. And we wrote it with Father Mike Schmitz from Ascension Presents. You might know him. You may know that guy. The book is concise, but there's lots of wisdom for any person that really wants to do God's will. And it's a journey trying to figure out what God wants for your life. And so there's a lot of wisdom from things we've learned along the way. There's testimonies and parts of our stories to help you out.

Really, like, this is a book I wish I had as a young adult. Like, this would help me a lot in my 20s. Discernment is a question we get asked all the time. Where is God calling me? What am I called to? What vocation am I called to? How do I know if I'm supposed to take this job? How do I know this? So we wrote this book to help you along the way, to give five steps to discern whatever

decision you're making and hopefully to give that peace and that joy that will come from making that decision. And the main goal is to help you grow closer to God along the way. So maybe not you. Maybe someone in your life is wrestling with a really tough decision and you want to give them some kind of resource or encouragement. It's for if you've got a big decision period. Yeah.

So go get your copy of Pray Decide and Don't Worry. go buy one for a friend, buy one for someone who's not your friend. Love your enemies. Buy them this book. Go to Ascensionpress.com and get your copy today. Well, thank you for returning. We're looking today at four opportunities to share the gospel, teaching, instruction with our children. And as I mentioned on the first half of the show, these are things that these are opportunities that are very natural.

They're not contrived, but they're just natural. And by the way, the more you do this, the more your children will expect that you're going to do it. And you won't get that sour look on their face every time you want to talk about something, but it'll become very natural. And not only natural with them, but the odds of them sharing with their children are going to rise because this is the way that they were raised. and they, when they grow up and they have children, they're going to want to pass good things on to their kids as well. And you have provided an example on how to do that. Now, again,

that scripture that Moses uses, or that Moses gives us is Deuteronomy 6 versus 6 through 7, and I'll put that in the show notes. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and here's the two other ones, when you lie down, and when you rise. Now, this text within Judaism is the text. It's called the shmah, S-H-E-M-A. It means to hear. It is the text, and every Jewish home knows the shmah. It's part of the shmah. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord. is one. And again, it's the key to teaching your children in an atmosphere, in a culture that

is counter-cultural to the gospel, and it is, in fact, opposed to the gospel. Now, if you do this on a daily basis, that's 365 days a year, and you add that up over a decade. You have thousands of ways that you have communicated the truth to your children. The third one is when you lie down. That is, and I'm going to reverse these, by the way, because I want to talk about when you get up first. But when you lie down is one of them. When you lie down, when you get up. So let's look at when you get up.

When you get up in the morning, oftentimes it's a rush. And if you have kids like mine, I had a couple of them that it was tough to get them up. It was tough to get them fed and out the door every, every, every, uh, every day, and it was something that you had to be intentional about. But every morning, every morning, even when I was on the road many times, I would do this via Skype, I would pray over them with what was called the ironic blessing. That's the blessing that Aaron gave. And it's in Numbers Chapter 6, verses 24 through 26, and that will be in the show notes. And Aaron said this, and this is a beautiful blessing upon your children. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his

face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Shalom. Now, that's a beautiful blessing. I remember listening years ago to a psychologist talking, a Christian psychologist, and he said that one of the chief things, that our children desire from us as parents is the blessing of their parents. And in my case, that would be the blessing of a father. That is something that is so core to good emotional, psychological health, a good outlook on life, a sense of security, a sense of wholeness, a sense of family, is to know that their father blesses them. Now, there are opportunities as you raise your kids to where they know that you are not exactly happy about their

attitude or something that they did. But that is separate from the blessing that you give them. You can be upset with something that they did or said or how they treated their sibling, but at the same time you can convey to them that they are blessed by you. And every morning, every morning, even if we were in a rush, they would stick their head out like dad get the blessing over with i got to go and and uh if my wife was bringing him to school they would make sure that i gave him a blessing and in a few years a few years they even took the bus and they would they would stick their head out their neck out and say dad give me the blessing so i put my hands upon them and i would give them that erronic blessing may the lord

bless you and keep you may the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you may the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. I even remember a time with my youngest Tony where I was in Israel leading a pilgrimage and I would Skype her in the morning and she would put her head out towards the screen on the computer and say, Dad, can you give me the blessing? And I would say, sure. And I put my hand up like over the camera and I would give her that blessing. That's how important it was to her that I would give her that blessing. So you might want to write that scripture down on a little index card and actually read it until you have it memorized, and that's something you can give them on a daily basis.

Another thing that Emily did with the kids was many times she would give them a phrase. She would be collecting phrases that would be positive, uplifting. And she had a little chalkboard in the kitchen, and she would write these phrases on the kitchen chalkboard. Maybe you have one on your refrigerator, that's a good idea, or on the kitchen table, wherever. She would write these phrases down on a daily basis, and she would remind the kids of some kind of truth, even if it was a scripture, or it was some kind of kind of proverb or a saying of a saint. She would write it down and she would remind them of that. So that's something that you can do when you get up in the morning. But you can't wait till you get up in the morning to come up with something. I would recommend that you sit down

sometime during the week and actually plan your week and write down these phrases or these scriptures that you want to convey to them. So in the morning, you know what you're going to write down, and they know that they're going to get something different every single morning. So that was a great idea that Emily came up with for the kids. Now, the fourth time is when you lie down at night. Now, this can be a great way to wind down the day. I remember growing up every night my parents would pray with me, the Hail Mary, the Lord's prayer, every single night.

And you can do that as well. You can have a time of prayer every night, and that's what we did with the children every night is we would kneel down next to one of their beds, and we would pray. And they just, you know, expected that. That's the way we close out the day. And that's an opportunity again when you can read scripture to them, or you can ask them to think about their day and how they did, and if there's any correct, directions that need to be made? Do they need to say that they are sorry to someone the next day

or even apologize to their siblings? It's also an opportunity for you, particularly in the earlier years, to read a story to them at night. I remember Jackie, our middle daughter, she would get really excited if I was going to read a story to her at night. And Emily oftentimes would read stories to them at night before they went to bed. And another idea when you lie down at night is to a lot of parents will snuggle up with their kids, you know, and pray with them. And they even tell a story about their own life. Like I would tell a story to the kids about something I remember from my growing up. I started to realize that telling stories about myself was something that they cherished. And when my grandparents, when my grandparents were alive, I oftentimes would ask them

to tell me stories about my dad or my mom. And I thought that was so niece. And grandpa, tell me about my dad when he was little. And he would say, okay, let me think. And he would tell a story. And we found that to be comforting and revealing at times. And it was good to know about my dad's life. And who better to go to then the one that raised my dad or the one that raised my mom. And so telling a story about your life can be kind of that living chalkboard where you're telling them some truth or something that you have learned. You learned when you were younger. Another thing is to tell them stories about their own lives or a funny story about them when they were younger. They love to hear stories about themselves. So that's another great opportunity.

And as you pray at night, assure them of the Lord's protection and the Lord's love as they go to sleep. And you can't wait to see them in the morning. So those are four opportunities that you have every single day that you can pass on the faith to your kids. It's when you sit at home, when you walk along the way, that's in the car or going someplace, when you get up in the morning and when you lie down in the evening. Make the most of every opportunity, buy up opportunities, know what the will of the Lord is, and pass that on to your children. Well, if you need the show notes for this, if you want those scriptures again, all you've got to do is text my name, one complete name, Jeff Kaven's, to 33777. That's 3377, and you'll be on the list and you'll get

all the scriptures and the points from all the podcasts that I do. I also want to remind you, you can find me at my website, jeffcavens.com. In fact, if you go there, I have, do you remember that PDF I was telling you about of how much time it takes to read every book of the Bible? Well, you can get that free on my website. Just go to my website, jeffcavens.com. I'm on Instagram and parlor, Facebook, you name it. I'll be there, and that's just one more way that we can pass on some truth and remind you of opportunities for me speaking and coming to a place near you. Let me pray for you. I know that raising kids can be difficult, but hopefully these are some helpful hints on how to pass on the

faith to you. You don't have to come up with a lot yourself. You know, you've got four opportunities. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friend to you and I ask you to give them, Lord, peace and encouragement in raising their children. Remind them, Lord, of these four opportunities on a daily basis. I pray that my friend, listening now, would make the most of every opportunity and start a new tradition in their life, a tradition that will not only pass on the faith but yield tremendous fruit, not only in this life, but in the life to come. I thank you for this, and I do ask for the intercession of our dear lady, Mary, the mother of Jesus, pray for our children. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. You have a great week, and I'd love to hear from you, by the way, if you're going to put

this into practice or you have some tradition that you use. I'd like to share that with everybody. You can write me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. God bless you. I love you. And have a wonderful week. Thank you.