The first few minutes of each day are some of the most important minutes of the day. Join us every Monday – Friday as we spend time applying God’s word to our lives. It’s just 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
Message from Bobby McGraw on August 23, 2022
In this weekday podcast, Pastor Bobby McGraw of Sugar Hill Church shares insights on cultivating faith within families through everyday interactions with children. He highlights Deuteronomy 6, where Moses encourages using daily rhythms to instill God's truths in the next generation. Pastor Bobby suggests practical routines like mealtimes, travel, bedtime, and morning rituals as opportunities for meaningful conversations that reinforce faith in a natural, relatable way. He emphasizes the importance of consistency and authenticity in these interactions, encouraging parents to approach faith-building as a continuous practice rather than aiming for perfection.
Well hey friends, thanks so much for being on the weekday podcast today.
If you haven't hit the subscribe button to this yet, chances are your device has a podcast app, whether it's the iTunes podcast app or downcast or pocketcast or whatever app you have, I encourage you to consider subscribing and what that does is it enables your device to automatically download the freshest episode every single night so you've already got content locked and loaded when it's time for you to to listen.
And so thanks for being here today. Today I want to think about this idea of keeping it real with your kids.
Now I get that not everybody that listens to this podcast has kiddos at home, maybe you don't have kids of your own, but I believe these principles are super powerful as we think about being intentional with helping the next generation connect with the faith.
In Deuteronomy 6, Moses really does this amazing job of casting vision to the nation as a whole and he gives a lot of practical principles that I believe help them and their day but certainly helps us in our day. When he talks about loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, he goes on and says in verse 7, talking about the commands of God, he says repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home and when you're on the road and when you're going to bed and when you're getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.
What's interesting is what Moses essentially does is he identifies the rhythms that are part of their everyday life. These are things that when they heard them they're like, man I do that every single day. I do it in the morning. I do it late at night and everything in between.
What Moses is essentially doing is he's saying, man take those everyday rhythms that are already in your home and use them as a way to impress the truths of God into the hearts of your kids. He realized in the future there's gonna be a ton of things that distract you and it's gonna be easy to drift away and so there's something important about having an everyday kind of faith that your kids can connect with.
I just want to give you a few ways to think about these couple of verses as it applies in our day and age. Some of the examples of a daily rhythm.
One of the ways that we can keep it real is number one, by eating meals together.When you have meals together around the table that's a chance to have focused discussion. It gives you a chance to assume the role of a facilitator, even a teacher, and to target some truth that you want your next generation to grab a hold of.
Number two, think about when you're traveling together.Some people like to walk the neighborhood together or walk to the bus stop together. Sometimes it's in the car. Not every day is gonna be like this but there are gonna be times that you are traveling together that you can have this informal kind of dialogue that allows your kids to drive the agenda. These are great times to build a relationship in a non-threatening kind of environment.
Number three, when you tuck your kids in bed. When you have this evening ritual. This can be a meaningful time. I think a lot of times parents maybe underestimate the power of this time because they have the habit of sending their kids to bed instead of taking them. But there's something about when a kid allows you through the door of their room that they're allowing you through the door of their hearts and it's a powerful time.
Another one is when you get up in the morning. Every morning provides a blank slate for a family to start fresh relationally. No matter if you eat breakfast together or just interact for a moment, there's something powerful about those moments. Maybe the morning is a time to intentionally speak positive words into the life of your kids.
Man, I just want to encourage you to think about keeping it real when it comes to passing along faith to the next generation. You don't have to be perfect but you do need to practice at it. You don't have to have it all figured out but you do have to be consistent and as you do I believe God's gonna use it to make faith real not just to you but to your kids.
Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon.
Chuck is the Lead Pastor at Sugar Hill Church. He’s been the Lead Pastor since 2011, but he’s been around Sugar Hill Church since 2008. Since day one, Chuck’s passion has been to encourage others with this one big belief: “You can do this! You can love God with all your heart, mind and soul and be normal!" You will often hear him say, “the Bible is a very big deal, Jesus is the very biggest deal and living that out always involves serving people here and around the globe.” Chuck's passion is to graciously lead people to Jesus and create a simple path for them to grow in their faith. Some of his goals are to reduce the dropout rate in our local schools, serve with our missions partners well, lead our church and families with a healthy fiscal plan, and in the future, to provide transitional housing for single moms. Chuck and his wife, Jenny, stay plenty busy with six daughters, three son-in-laws, five grandkids and an awesome dog, Kirby. They are foodies and enjoy eating through the Atlanta Magazine Top 50 Restaurants. Chuck’s favorite things to do include fishing, reading, writing and cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs!
Bobby serves as both the Associate Pastor and the Teaching Pastor at Sugar Hill Church. He has been on staff here since December, 2008 (where he started part-time in Student Ministry). Bobby’s passion comes from a love of seeing the light-bulb go on for folks. Whether it’s in a small group, a NEXT gathering, or during a weekend message, he loves seeing people “get it” and apply the truth to their lives. As one of our pastors here, Bobby helps individuals take the next steps in their faith, he helps the church fulfill its God-given mission, and he gives day-to-day direction to our Adult Ministries, Communications, and Finance teams. In his spare time, you can find Bobby riding his motorcycle, working out, reading, or eating gas station tacos. He and his wife, Laura, have been married since January, 2011, and they have a very “manly” 10lb cockapoo named Ollie. He would love to connect more, so find him on social media (@bobbymcgraw) or check out his blog at yourbetterstory.com.
