After a rough evening at the Mayo household complete with screaming, spanking, and tantrums I decided to call in the big guns. I figured if I couldn’t get through to my kids then God could (this is a candy coated way to say that I tried to manipulate my kids with moralistic stories from a children’s Bible). So I told them about Jonah and how he disobeyed God. Never mind the overarching theme of God’s compassion for the Gentiles. No I had to tell them about the consequences of disobedience. So then I asked them to pick a story they wanted me to read. Kaydon said he wanted to read the end. So I turned to the last story about John’s vision of Jesus and the new heaven and a new earth. After some clumsy defining of heaven Kaydon asked how to get there. I told him “Just follow Jesus. That’s how I plan to get there.” Kaydon immediately grabbed my arm and said “I’m following you.”
And then it hit me. My kids will not learn their faith in Sunday school. They will learn it from watching me. They won’t learn it from flannel graphs. They will learn it from my hugs and my integrity. They won’t learn it from Bible drills they will learn it from the grace and hope they see in me when things are going down the drain. They will learn it just like I learned it from my Dad when he refused to give in to a lifestyle of sin and allowed God to clean him up so that he could be a good example to us. They will learn it like I learned from my Dad, my grandfather, and a whole host of uncles who accepted this withdrawn socially awkward kid and taught me how to be a man. What kids don’t learn in Sunday school they learn from their parents and especially their fathers. My son grabbed my arm last night and said he was going to follow me. I hope and pray I stay committed to leading him to the right place.
