Daily Devotional: March 12th, 2020

Teaching Our Youth

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.

Deuteronomy 6:7

Did you Know?

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher who wrote a treatise on vibrating bodies at nine years old; his first proof, on a wall with a piece of coal, at 11 years old; and a theorem by 16 years old.

A child prodigy is someone under the age of 18 who masters one or more skills beyond their expected level of maturity. Such giftedness shows levels of a highly skilled adult in an area that is demanding. People debate whether nature (natural giftedness) or nurture (environment) plays a larger role in child prodigies. Stories of different talented children and youth seem to indicate it can be both.

For instance, George Frederic Handel loved music, but his father wanted him to study civil law. In fact, he was strictly forbidden to touch any musical instruments. But Handel found a way to move a small clavichord to the uppermost room in their home and play after everyone else was fast asleep. At an early age he became skilled on the clavichord and organ, and we still listen to his music today!

Can we get a head start in our walk with God, even at a young age? Paul wrote to young Timothy, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14, 15).

The Bible made Timothy wise in the most important field of endeavor we can pursue—the science of salvation. You can be gifted by the Holy Spirit in many different areas but do not neglect the foundation for all the skills you acquire: a thorough knowledge of the Word of God. It is a book worth mastering, even at an early age.