Passing on the Baton

UV 1196/10,000 Passing on the Baton

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

Joel 1 v 3


As parents it is our duty to tell our children the wonderful acts of power, grace and mercy the Lord has done in our lives as it is theirs to tell their children. We are to share it not only with our own biological offspring but with all the young who we come in contact with in the course of our lives. The purpose for telling the next generation is so that they too set their hope on the Lord, not forget the works of God and keep His commandments that they too should know the Lord and be blessed by Him.

We are to diligently teach the children, talk of it while we are sitting down and lying down and when we rise again. It should be a constant refrain in our lives so that they are trained in righteousness. It should not breed a religious fervour or an attitude of self righteousness in them. It should teach them to walk in humility and faith before the Lord all the days of their lives. As it is written in scripture, “Teach a child the way she should go and she will not forget it all her life.” We are also to share our own unique testimonies of how we came to know and love the Lord and our various struggles and experiences as well as victories in the Lord.


Even if a person learns the Ten Commandments thoroughly and keeps it in letter and spirit, it will preserve him or her from great troubles: it will keep him from lying and deception, from covetousness and cheating, from violence and oppression, from adultery and its consequences. The essence of all the laws of all nations is contained therein. If a child is taught to read and apply the sayings in the book of Proverbs, it will teach her how to behave, how to relate to people, how to avoid arguments, how to succeed, how to communicate. The book of Ecclesiastes teaches a person the vanity of life and to remember the Lord in everything one does from the days of one’s youth. The book of Psalms teaches a person how to be close and personal with the Lord God, how to talk to Him when things are looking good and when they are not, how to worship Him in one’s heart and with one’s lips. Teaching the next generation the scriptures is the best and only way of passing on our spiritual inheritance and divine wisdom.


Prateep V Philip