I believe the opportunity and key hows of parenting are summed up in Deuteronomy 6:4-9
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NIV 1984)
“Hear.” Dad are you listening to what God is telling you? Are you listening with the intent of obeying? Jesus said if we loved him we would obey him. (John 14) The first step in obedience is listening.
“The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in unity. Are you in unity with your wife? While there are many things that go into successful parenting, unity between Dad and Mom is at the top of the list.
“Love the LORD your God.” It is impossible to pass on a faith you do not have. My working definition of faith is, a gift of active perseverance born out of trusting the faithfulness of another. (It is the soul actively positioned on the reliability of the Father to save, heal, and deliver in a specific matter.) To love God is to obey Him. To love Him “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” requires devotion.
“These commandments … are to be upon your hearts.” Psalm 119 is a wonderful treatise on loving God’s commands. We are to treasure His commands and allow them to guide who we are. (Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (NKJV))
So far all of these points speak to your heart and attitude. Are you listening to obey? Are you in unity with God and your mate? Do you demonstrate love for God by obeying Him? Do you have a warm and active trust in the faithfulness of God? Do you treasure God’s commands and allow them to mold who you are? If so, then you are prepared for interacting with your children. The next part of the passage tells us how.
“Talk about them when….” Through the course of normal life, talk. Do not lecture. Dialog. Explain. Use opportunities as they arise to illustrate and show application. If your heart is full of God’s commandments then Luke 6:45 For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (NIV 1984)
Parents that obeyed God’s command in Deuteronomy 6:7 “Talk about them when….” were preparing their children to “hear” and understand Jesus’s message. Jesus spoke in parables. To explain how one of the Ten Commandments worked in a particular situation was comparable to teaching your child how to think in parables. The Commandment would be the idea and the situation the parable.