Even now as I think about it, I kind of wrinkle up my nose at the thought. Because my brother was a year and a half older than I, all my clothes as a child, as an adolescent, and as a beginning teen were hand-me-downs. Needless to say, when I turned sixteen and my parents took me to the local haberdasher to be outfitted in my own new suit, I was floating on “cloud nine.” Some time ago I was lamenting to my wife about wearing hand-me-downs, and she said: “Well, how would you like to have had twin sisters who were older? I got a double blessing of everything! One dress for school, and the other for Sunday! How’s that for real variety” I haven’t lamented to her since about hand-me-downs!
But as I think about hand-me-downs, I have come to see, that in a spiritual setting a hand-me-down faith is a tremendous blessing. It’s a beautiful thing when parents love the Lord, and then share that love with their children day by day.
When Moses and the multitude came to cross the Jordan River, the parents in that crowd looked across into Canaan and feared, because they knew that Canaan was filled with godless people, and would be a moral cesspool for their offspring. But Moses tried to calm their fears by telling them how to hand the secret of religious instruction to their children. He said (Deuteronomy 6:6): “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart” (not in anyone else’s heart, but in “thine heart”). What Moses is saying is that if parents don’t have a dynamic living relationship with the Lord, they really have nothing to communicate in a spiritual sense to their children (because a parent can’t give to his child something which he doesn’t possess himself). And then in the following verses, Moses outlines four very teachable times of the day when moral and spiritual training should be passed on to children
- At mealtime (“When thou sittest in thine house”);
- Out of doors (“When thou walkest by the way”);
- At bedtime (“When thou liest down”);
- First thing in the morning (“When thou risest up”).
The whole essence of Moses’ teaching in this portion of Scripture is that basic biblical instruction and religious training belong to parents. Be sure not to wrinkle up your nose at a hand-me-down faith. It’s the way God designed it to be.
