Introducing your Children to God

So, we've had, so far, four answers to the question I posed last time: "What is the most important thing for a parent to ensure his or her child learns?"

The consensus seems to be, from what I can tell, that the one most important thing that a parent can teach his or her child is about God.  Specifically, to introduce one's child to God is the first and most important responsibility of a parent.  To mix what Orlinda, Juliana and Cameron said together, parents should teach their children who God is, that He loves them, and teach them to love Him back.

So, here's Question #3:

What is the second-most important thing for a parent to teach his or her child?

Third Time's the Charm, or Three Strikes and Yer Out…

So, obviously, my attempt to keep this blog going stumbled, again.  That means that this will be the third time that I'm trying to keep writing on a somewhat regular basis.  It I don't succeed this time, I'll be done with the whole thing and stop bothering everyone.  Hopefully, that won't be the case.

So, the consensus from everyone who answered my last question, both here and on Facebook, seems to be that, basically, the responsibility to educate a child belongs to the parents, especially in the area of ethics.  One commenter on Facebook pointed out Deuteronomy 6, the famous passage in which God commands the Israelites to teach their children about God and their history.

I definitely agree.  Children are given to parents, not to the State or to the community at large.  The responsibility to educate them falls totally to the parents.  That said, as a good number of those who commented pointed out, the possibility exists for parents to in some way arrange for others be involved in their child's education.  As besiderself pointed out, even when this occurs, the parent is not delegating ultimate responsibility for the child's education to the other people who are involved.  So, while Gilligan and James (through support) have a good point about how parents aren't always (or usually) equipped to totally execute their child's education alone, and how parents should let, say, someone who know's Calculus be the one to teach your child Calculus, most of the responsibility to have your child taught Calculus remains with the parent; I think we can probably all agree that some responsibility does, though, go to the person who has agreed to teach the child Calculus.

So, Question #2:

What is the most important thing for a parent to ensure his or her child learns?