Not by Bread Alone

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

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

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes.

-Deuteronomy 6:5-8

Matthew 4 recounts the story of Jesus’ time in the wilderness.  He had just been baptized and the Spirit of the Lord led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  When Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry and the tempter came to Him telling Him to command the stones to become bread.  Jesus answers by quoting Scripture, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” 

Jesus takes this Scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3, “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”  In Deuteronomy 8 Moses reminds the people of what God has done for them and exhorts them to keep His commandments.  Verse 6 reads, “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.”

We are not just to know and keep His commandments for ourselves, but also for our children.  We are to know His Word so intimately that it is in our heart.  We are to teach His Word diligently to our children.  It is to become such a part of us that we talk of it throughout our day, when we sit, when we walk, when we lie down, and when we rise up.  His Word is to become a familiar part of our lives. 

This leads me to another goal that I have for this blog.  I want to share insights that I have gleaned in my life as a wife, mother, and homeschool teacher.  When I first began homeschooling 17 years ago, I heard a tape in which the speaker exhorted us as homeschoolers to always put the Word of God first in our homeschooling.  I took this advice to heart and began most school days by reading His Word with my children.  (I would like to say that we began every day with God’s Word, but I must honestly admit that we began most days with His Word.) 

One guide I have used in these daily readings of God’s Word is the Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History.  This guide leads you and your children through the historical books of the Old Testament.  I have read through these history books many times with my children and every time we glean new insights and remember details that we have forgotten. 

My children have gained spiritually from this daily reading of God’s Word.  God says, “My Word will not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”  The importance of God’s Word is the most crucial insight that I have gained in my homeschooling journey.  I strongly encourage you to make the daily reading of God’s Word a priority in your family.