Our Responsibility to Teach Our Children

Recent events have led me to consider again my responsibility as a parent as it relates to teaching them the gospel.  King Benjamin gave us a brief list of parents’ duties towards their children: “And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin….  But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another” (Mosiah 4:15).  Though of course we can’t control their actions, it is our responsibility to do everything we can to keep them from transgressing the laws of God.  We are to inspire them to love one another and teach them not to fight and have contention.  And just as making sure they don’t go hungry or naked is something we have to continually address (we can’t feed them in a day for the rest of their childhood), we must work day after day to teach them to keep God’s commandments and to love and serve others.

               In our dispensation the Lord has renewed his requirement for parents to teach their children the gospel.  He revealed to the prophet Joseph, “And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.”  In other words, if we are in a stake of Zion and don’t teach our children the first four principles and ordinances of the gospel—faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost—their sins will be on our heads.  To put even more emphasis on this requirement, the Lord added, “For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized.”  He then followed up with a mention of two particular commandments which I believe are key to accomplishing this: “And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.  And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (D&C 68:25-29).  Teaching our children to pray and to keep the Sabbath day holy in particular are central to being able to help them develop faith, repent, receive baptism, and learn to heed the promptings of the Spirit. 

            This commandment that parents teach their children the gospel has been in place since the days of Adam—it is the way that the Lord has ordained that children learn of Him and their purpose in life from the very beginning.  To Adam the Lord said, “Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence.”  He further emphasized, “Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying: That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin” (Moses 6:57-59).  Though in different language, here again the Lord emphasized the basic principles of the gospel: repentance, baptism, and being sanctified through the reception of the Spirit and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  I often show my concern to my children as it relates to their need to do well in school and learn to read and do math and get their homework done, but I realize that I fail too often to show the greater concern that they learn to have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of their sins, and walk uprightly before the Lord.  When I stand before the judgment seat of God, I don’t think the Lord will ask me how well I taught my children their multiplication facts, but surely I will be required to give an accounting on how well I taught them to keep His commandments and repent of their sins.