| “Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” |
| —Joel 1:3 |
Nearly everyone has played the “Game of Telephone.” A simple phrase gets secretly passed in a whisper from one person to another. This continues around a circle until the last person receives the phrase and then proclaims it aloud. To the enjoyment of everyone, the phrase has often drastically changed from the original whisperer, as each person hears what the previous person told him or her, and then passes the phrase onward. The game seems more fun, the more outrageous the change that takes place in the course of transmitting the original phrase.
When the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ passes from one generation to another, we should aim at total accuracy above all else. We all know people who come from a long line of faithful Christians, but over the course of their upbringing they may have heard a particular twist to the gospel story that changes them into doubters or cynics of the faith—sadly, or even deserters from the faith. Other voices intervene in the transmission of God’s truth. In fact, one who sows lies joins the circle and, before long, the last hearer receives a message that completely distorts what the first person heard and understood.
How do we keep the children of this generation from being negatively affected by those who would try to influence them away from the true Gospel, the Truth of the written Word of God? Parents can’t always prevent their children from hearing wrong voices. However, if the parents have carefully orchestrated whom their children hear most often, and find ways to introduce them to winsome Christian family members and Christian friends, this latest generation will hear and carry on the faithful truths of the great heritage we have in Christ Jesus.
Please let me offer an example:
When I taught elementary music in a public school, folk songs became the major element of my curriculum. Not only did these folk songs supply the musical elements I taught, they also provided students with the “mother tongue” of their heritage as Americans. Scripture is the “mother tongue” of our Christian heritage. Our children need to hear faithful preaching and faithful teaching of God’s written Word. Our children need to come to know faithful Christians in the church, and our children need to observe these Christians’ lives of service and devotion to Christ and His Kingdom.
Yes, children need to see and hear people who have made the Christian life a firm foundation for their lives, and children need to see and hear people whose lives they can emulate. The children also need to learn the songs and hymns of their Christian heritage.
At the end of Moses’ life, as recorded in Deuteronomy 31, he wrote a song and instructed the Israelites to teach it and to sing it, as a testimony of God’s work. In similar fashion, Psalm 78:1-6 speaks of writing parables, in order to teach the next generation. Excerpts of those verses state:
I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old … We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord … he commanded our forefathers to teach their children so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Not only has God given us the means to teach the next generation, He can give us the courage, wisdom, grace, and all else that we need in order to do so. Let us pray for this current generation of children. And, let us pray for those who not only begin their lives surrounded by the message of Christ, but who will carry it on throughout their lifetimes.
