Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9

Little bit much, don't you think? Talk about overkill, redundancy, boring repetition. Repeat the words of God to our children, tell them about God when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. Even write them on the back of your hand and on your forehead if you must so that you will remember. Write them on the doorframe of your house so that you will see them every time you go in or out.

Reminds me of learning the multiplication tables. By the time I was up to the nines I was ready to be done. This is so boring. Why do I need to do this?? But neither teacher nor parent allowed me to give it up. They knew that I would need what they were teaching.

God says the same about our spiritual formation. We need to hear and hear again-experience and experience again. We cannot reinforce or repeat often enough. These are the most important of life's lessons. They prepare us not only to live now, but to live in all eternity beginning now. The folks at NASA tell us that redundancy of systems saves the lives of astronauts. The Scripture teaches that redundancy reinforces the truths of God so that they are imprinted in our hearts.

That is why programs of Christian formation-Sunday School, KREW, Vacation Bible School, UMYF-cannot be left to the whims or preferences of the children who are not mature enough to realize the eternal consequences of short term choices. Parents, you cannot do it alone. The church is here to provide the redundant system, the repetition, the reinforcement that is vital to the life of your child. Is the spiritual formation of your children your top priority?