Habit 1: Be Intentional

The first habit Steven Covey discusses in his “7 Habits”book is to “be proactive”, to take responsibility for your actions, reactions and results.

After giving the nation of Israel the 10 commandments, Moses encouraged parents to take responsibility for parenting their children:

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

What did Moses say that their responsibilities were?

First: the current generation -including parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts – was to love God first

Second: they were to teach their children

Note: “you” can be singular or plural, but here all the “you” pronouns are singular: Moses was addressing the nation as a whole but put the responsibility to do this on all of us individually (but we’ll get to the community aspect later in the series)
Parents – are the primary teachers of your children, and are the most seen example they have of how to love and serve God.
Ask yourself: how is your example in your walk with God? If your kids put in the same effort, had the same level of love for God and His Word – would they grow up to love God?

Practical:
Moses talks about talking about God and his laws “when you sit at home”, etc. – basically all the time. What are some ways you can spend time talking about God with your kids?