The first obligation of any parent is to love God with all that you have to give. This is the meaning of the words in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 where the Holy Spirit, through Moses, instructs parents how to lead their children to follow God. Nothing less than a full-on commitment to love God is in view. These words are passionate words! God calls for you to be all-in when it comes to telling your children about him. God will not be an after-thought or an add-on to your parenting.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
You are to love God with everything that you are as a person: All your heart, All your soul and All your strength. In other words, you are to be consumed with loving God!
But this is not just an attitude or spiritual aura that the Holy Spirit is addressing. Consuming love for God is expressed in the loving his commandments from your heart. As Christ explains, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.”
An expression of this consuming love is shown by the commandments of God being woven into the hearts of God’s people. God’s commandments are to define and identify the people of God from the inside out. This is how God commands are to impact you as a person. First there is a deep love for God, and then there is to be a deep love of his commands. This love has a noticeable physical and emotional impact:
“The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.”
It the commands of God are valued by your heart, they will spill over into every facet of your life.
This leads us to verse 7 where we are told to take what has been precious to us and give it to our children, from your heart to their hearts.
“Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
There are two parts to verse 7. First, the love of God and the commandments of God that have become part of your heart are to be impressed on your children. Secondly, this is to be done on a 24/7 basis, talking everyday about this consuming love for God and his commands at every possible opportunity.
This is the heart-to-heart transfer that makes the instruction of the Holy Spirit through his word unique. If God’s word dominates your heart it will dominate your life.