Daily EncouragementSample

Life for the people of God is to be permeated with his words. They are to dominate action and thought - “tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads” - and this in a real and vital way, far removed from the wearing of phylacteries (Matt. 23:5) or its modern equivalent of inscribing texts on salt-shakers and ball-point pens.

One sure way of enabling the words of God to have this wholesome influence is to teach them to our children. We are to do this in a spontaneous way, “talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 11:19). Delight in the law of the Lord is the source of such spontaneity (Ps. 1:2).

“Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 11:20). Are we to take that literally? Or should texts on the wall have gone out with the aspidistras of a former age? A well chosen text thoughtfully hung on a wall can surely be meaningful. Besides being a witness to the visitor, its words may well be remembered by our children long after they have left home.