How do you bring children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?”  Where do you begin?  My first grandchild was six years old, her sister was three, when the Lord impressed upon me the need for me to teach them.  I cared for them while Lee, our daughter, a physical therapist, worked two days a week.  During the summer months we began a series of study called Summer of Psalms, which we have been doing for thirteen years.  Ansley has outgrown the study, but Kourtney, now fifteen, and her sisters, Olivia, 10, and Emma, 8, just finished six days (one day a week) of Psalm 146.

What began with Psalm 100 has grown in the hearts and minds and lives of these children.  Many seeds have been planted each summer and we have watched the girls grow in the understanding that everything comes under one heading—GOD.

Everything begins with GOD

I didn’t know that those first lessons with the name GOD at the top of the blackboard would always be our starting point, and that we would always come back to that main point.  The whole series of study, consisting of seven particular Psalms, has stressed the person of GOD, His Lordship, and His glory.  The curriculum was built around His Word, His work, His salvation, His Son—Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, His name, His creation, His presence, His power, His kingdom, His grace, etc.

Even though we have booklets the Holy Spirit adds notes during our time of study.  I continue to learn as I am teaching.  The last day of study, which we call The Gathering (Christ, the shepherd and his sheep) we were looking at the meaning of the Alpha and the Omega as it relates to the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  So, when we asked the question,  “Where do we always begin,” their answer, as usual, was, “GOD.”

It was rather simple to follow that question with, “Where do we end?”

And right on time, in unison, they knew the answer—“With GOD.”

*Years ago the first question they learned from our church’s children’s catechism was, “Who made you?”

Answer: “God.”

The second question: “What else did God make?”

Answer:  “All things.”

Third question:  “Why did He make you and all things?”

Answer:  “For His own glory.”

Everything ends with GOD

First and last GOD will have all the glory.  There is much that will take place in our lives between the beginning and the end.  This is the time of His grace.  There are generations that will come and go between the beginning and ending of time on this earth. Within, and from His own glory, He has planned His work—“before the foundation of the world;” now He is working His plan—“according to the counsel of His will,” a plan that will end in His glory.

As He is leading me to place all things in the light of His glory, from beginning to end; seeing Him as head over all things in Christ; looking diligently to Him, “the author and finisher of our faith,” His glory is becoming the dominant factor and thought on my mind and in my heart.  By His grace He is revealing Himself to be the Alpha and Omega of my life, and the life of all those who are in Christ.

As He continues to shine into my heart “the light of the knowledge of His glory in Christ” more and more of my life is for His glory.  The more glory He reveals through His Word and His Spirit, and the more glory He receives from His work of grace in me, the more joy I experience in my heart and life.  The “unsearchable riches of Christ” given by a gracious Father are unfathomable, but ever growing to reveal more and more of His glory, until He is ready to receive us unto Himself—where His glory will be never-ending.

“I was brutish and ignorant, I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you, you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.”

Psalm 73:23,24 ESV

* Foundations is a children’s catechism used at Christ Reformed Church (Reformed Baptist).  If you are interested I have this on a PDF File for loose-leaf binder.