Year B, Easter 6, Tuesday

Inspired by Deuteronomy 11:1-17

“You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.  Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm.”  Deuteronomy 11:1-2

The world turns on its axis, the sun rises and sets, rises and sets; the spring turns into summer, the summer into autumn, the autumn into winter, and the winter gives way to spring again.  The years pass, the children replace their elders, and generations go by as the world continues to turn on its axis, day by day, life by life.

We’re so busy living our own lives and dealing with our own immediate problems that we often lose sight of the big picture.  We try so hard to let our children just be children, and do everything we can to give them happy, enriching lives that we forget to train them in the ways they should go.  The torch is ours to carry now; it was handed to us by our parents, and we will pass it on to our children in the future.  What we do or don’t teach them now will impact not only how they live their own lives, but how they will shape the world they live in.  Because shape it they will, whether they are prepared to or not.

What are you teaching the children around you, your own or your relatives’ or your friends’ or your neighbors’?  What experiences have you had that they can learn from?  What values are you instilling in them by your own words and behavior?  Are you passing onto them what you know to be true about the Lord your God, what he’s done throughout human history, what he’s done in your own life?

You are a steward of this world, and as part of your stewardship it is your responsibility to help teach the younger generation how to be good stewards.  God created this world long ago and entrusted it to humanity.  Others cared for it long before you were born, and others will care for it long after you’re gone.  Some have done well; some have caused harm.  What will you do, and how do you want those who follow you to treat what you have done?

Let us pray.  Eternal God, you created the world, you sustain it with your Spirit, and you’ve entrusted it to us.  Help us to teach our children your ways and share with them what we know and have witnessed, that they may grow to be good stewards of your creation.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen.