The second thing I’m thankful for in my mother’s example is how she catechized us. Every evening during family worship, my father quizzed us on our catechism, also writing a Sunday School curriculum which eventually became a book.

But during the day, my mother was working on it. Whether it was the Children’s Catechism or the Westminster Shorter, she incorporated the questions and answers into school, reading the news, Bible study, and talks before bed. These were totally relevant questions and answers; we never thought that they were merely rote, since she made their application and use so clear. Beyond that, she found and utilized other tools to help us internalize these truths. Judy Rodger’s music was the sound track to my childhood. My brother’s teenaged years and theological thought are being shaped by G. I. Williamson’s study on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

My college student sister wrote me a few weeks ago, “I am so thankful for all that memorizing! I had no idea it would come in so handy in a dorm!” I have found the same: when engaging Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door, talking with a friend, or instructing my children, the biblical truths of the catechism so often come pouring out. Those hours and hours of repetition on my mother’s part have given her children incredible dividends. We know what we believe, and why. A biblical worldview with relevant, applicable theology is one of the greatest things a parent can give a child.