Impressions

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 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... Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:5-9

This passage really struck me this week. I am realizing this monumental task I have as a mother to train my children in righteousness and in obedience requires, not only my own personal example, but distinct intentional ways that I plan to expose them to His truth and foster their belief in and love for God. But I am comforted by the fact that their hearts are still tender, the soil of their souls still fertile and not strewn with too many weeds of worldly things. And I like the way it is phrased in Deuteronomy that we are to "impress" God's words on our children. They are a malleable entity, wax waiting for a seal, waiting for the most influential people in their lives, their parents, to impress the truth of our redemption from sin through faith in Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice. What kind of impression am I leaving with the things I do and say with my daughters? What permanent mark on their heart am I leaving by what I am teaching or NOT teaching them?