Parents need to teach their children

"..and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Last week at the women's meeting I taught on two goals that every Christian parent should have for their children(see post below). This week I taught that parents have the job of teaching their children. Many things come along in life that can pull our children away from following God such as: temptations of the world, bad friends, their own desires, or lies from Satan. We have to make sure that we teach our children the Word of God so that when they are faced with these things they will know how to handle them. I think that in the verse above it doesn't just mean that we should teach our children 4 times a day. I think that it is saying that we should take every opportunity that we have throughout the day to teach our children.
Eli, in 1 Sam. 2-3, was a priest. He himself was a good man. He also raised Samuel well. But Eli's own sons were very sinful. It says in 1 Sam. 3:13 "I am about to punish his house for ever. For the iniquity which he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them." God judged Eli for not teaching and punishing his sons. It was not enough for Eli to work well for God. God wanted Eli to raise his own sons well.
We, as Christian parents, need to make sure that we are doing all that we can to teach our children the way to live and follow God. So many times here in Zambia children are just left to do whatever they want to do during the day. The parents will not even start disciplining their children until they are around the age of 5. As you can imagine by that time it is too late. Often their form of disciplining is to beat their children to teach them and I'm not talking about spanking. Please pray for Zambians to begin to take an interest in their children and desire for them to follow God and live for Him. Pray that they will take opportunities to teach their children the Word of God.