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 upon 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.
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. 9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
1 Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. 2 I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. 3 When I was a boy in my father's house, still tender, and an only child of my mother, 4 he taught me and said, “Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. 6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. 7 Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”
6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
17 He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.
4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
“But what does it mean to ‘love one another’? The answer: This is love, that we walk in obedience to His commands. John defined Christian love in terms of obedience to God. A Christian who truly seeks God's best for his brothers and sisters can only do so by obeying what God has commanded him to do. Love undirected by God's revealed will may easily degenerate into unwise, sentimental activity.” Bible Knowledge Commentary
“This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord’s arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday School Teachers, or other friendly aids, these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation...mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“We're pilgrims on the journey - Of the narrow road - And those who've gone before us line the way - Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary - Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace - Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses - Let us run the race not only for the prize - But as those who've gone before us - Let us leave to those behind us - The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives - After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone - And our children sift through all we've left behind - May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover - Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find - Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful - May the fire of our devotion light their way - May the footprints that we leave - Lead them to believe - And the lives we live inspire them to obey - Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.” Steve Green
“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” Robert Fulghum
“The majority of children acquire the characteristics and habits of their parents. What are they learning from us?” Billy Graham
“This is a passing world — a world that is passing away, and a world passing on its legacy, and the children are looking up and straight into us, asking the world what in this banged-up world are you all passing down to us?” Ann Voskamp
“Though salvation is not by the works of the law, yet the blessings which are promised to obedience are not denied to the faithful servants of God. The curses our Lord took away when He was made a curse for us, but no clause of blessing has been abrogated. We are to note and listen to the revealed will of the Lord, giving our attention not to portions of it but to ‘all these words.’ There must be no picking and choosing but an impartial respect to all that God has commanded. This is the road of blessedness for the Father and for His children. The Lord’s blessing is upon His chosen to the third and fourth generation. If they walk uprightly before Him, He will make all men know that they are a seed which the Lord has blessed.” Charles H. Spurgeon