Fathers Teaching Kids: How?

The post "When Bible Stories Go Well With Kids" along with this post caused me to think about my roll in teaching my children about God. I am under no illusion that i am weak in this area and continually need to pour in the effort, but here are some quick thoughts about the issue:

Daddy's Job

The Biblical mandate for the instruction of children falls not at the feet of youth workers, but right inside the home; "You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deut 11:19) Not only does it land in the home, but it rests squarely upon the father's shoulders (Ephesians 6:4). 

How To?
I remember having lunch (if burger king counts as lunch) with Thabiti Anyabwile, and i asked him his advice on family devotions. His answer was so simple yet affecting.

"What to do is the easy thing, you just need to do it."

He had discerned well that i'd been so focussed on what to do that i'd let the whole thing bog me down & nothing was getting done. And it is the essence of that answer i would pass on to any father; don't focus on what to do, focus on doing it. Even if it's just a few verses from your Bible, or a Bible story with application from your memory, it is something.
A constant fight to open the Word to our children will hopefully instill within them a habit and an understanding of how important it is to read and study Scripture.

Tools I Use

• My Bible
• My mind
• BIG PICTURE STORY BIBLE (this is brilliant)
• The Children's Bible
• The Lamb (This is a bit old for Jake but interpreting the text for him helps)

*I should say that i fall short of my own advice on many occasions and apart from Jacob's insistence i'd easily skip a night or two. And that all this is useless apart from private prayer on behalf of our children