While stationed in Hawaii, a few months before my beautiful daughter Tia was born, I was given a Bible from my parents for Christmas. When Tia would cry, I would read it to her and she would instantly quiet down. If I stopped reading, she would cry again, so I would read more and she would calm again until she dozed off. I didn’t realize it then, but God was filling me so that I could pour into her.
By the time she was a toddler, I was praying over her regularly and teaching her to pray while I was learning myself. I remember once near the Christmas holiday when she was 3 years old, a couple came to spend the day with our family. The wife was cranky and complained a lot. Her husband finally asked, “What is wrong with you?” She said she had a headache. Tia very slowly got up, walked over, placed her tiny little hand on her head and said, “In the Name of Jesus, be healed!” And she walked back to her cartoons. A few seconds after, the woman said her head felt better!
I read Psalms 118:24 to Tia often, and once she memorized it, we would quote it daily. I would wake her up and say, “This is the day that the Lord has made,” and she would reply, “I will rejoice and be glad in it.” And that is how we began our day! We did this until she left for college.
Deuteronomy 6:7 Impress them on your children …at home … when you walk … when you lie down … and when you get up.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Our little children are adults in training. God entrusts us to teach them the Word, giving them direction. No one is perfect, but it is our job to see to it that they arrive safely to their grown-up destination.
She and I came to Cornerstone when she was in 8th grade where we both were continually taught more of the Word, and she now assists me in diligently teaching the Word to our children of Cornerstone. We often get to listen to each child pray, and it encourages me, knowing that they will grow to know how to go to God to gain their own strength. And one day they, too, will be in a position to teach this Word to others to keep the learning—teaching process forever flowing. Amen!
Wanda Garrison