Preparing Them To Die

As I think about what my job is as a mother and pray for my kids, God has brought to mind that one day all of my kids will die. I realize this is not a happy thought and something many of us avoid thinking about much less talking about, but this is where my heart is. My kids are little and I do not expect them to die for decades, but I know that one day they will.

What does this mean for me as a Christian mother. This takes me to the instructions given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:4-7:

Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. These words that I command you today shall be upon your heart. 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. 

We are commanded by the Lord to teach His ways to our children. But why?

Because He is the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth and is worthy of all praise and honor and glory.

The problem is they are sinful and cannot praise the Lord and bring Him honor and glory. Therefore we must teach them ultimately about Jesus, the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world and after 3 days raised from the dead to conquer sin and death for us. See without Jesus, they will be separated from God in hell for all eternity.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6

Jesus is life! Though we die a physical death we will live for eternity and only in Christ can we live with God eternally praising His Name and bringing Him honor and glory. This is the most important thing I can teach them. This is preparing them to die.

At the same time I am, I pray, teaching them to live. But if they are living without Christ, they are not living at all.