One of the foundations for the family as the prime agent of spiritual nurture is Dt. 6, a chapter which became famous in Israel's history. The chapter begins by reminding God's people that they were to observe his commands and decrees after they cross the Jordan. The reason attached is:
"so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you." (Dt. 6:2)
Note 2 very important things about this. First God expects the family to pass on the faith. The command to parents, far from permitting them to forget about their children, is for them to strive for the goal of handing down their faith to their children and grandchildren. Parents, this challenge is still for you. Not only to have a lively faith yourself, but also to pass on the faith down to your children, and to so equip them, that they will pass the faith on to their children as well. Including yourself, will your love for Christ be passed on to the 3rd generation? It won't be easy. It will take work, and a long-standing commitment. Secondly, we are told what to pass down:
"all his decrees and commands".
It is not half, nor part of God's commands, but the whole corpus. And it is the imperative instructions that we are to pass down. So God gives the family the blueprint in those verses. God does not leave us in the dark about what we should pass on to our children. Then the passage continues with the famous:
"Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love he Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be you’re your hearts. Impress these 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your house and on your gates." (Dt. 6: 4-9).
God does not call us to present holy worship to our children as one option among many to see if they will grace us with an agreement to attend. He charges parents with the duty to impress these things on our children while they are impressionable. God calls on the believing family to impress these things on our youth - not merely throw them out as options - among many - to believe. Nor do we relay these truths and convey to our children to believe any old things. No, we authoritatively declare the one truth of the one living God, and we seek at every opportunity to impress these on our children. Our homes are to be bathed in the messages of God. All activities are to be infested with his holiness. And regular times will be helpful in most cases.
But don't stop here. Drop down in the same passage to v. 20, to see further, how our children are to be involved.
"In the future when your son asks you, 'What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?' tell him...".
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Because we are to talk about them in all circumstances, we much talk about them in narrative - the narrative of our lives, the story of Jesus lived out in us.
Along the lines of what orion said, we are teaching our children non-stop through narrative. Often it is a trashy romance novel where the "secret" lover is the world.
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