🧠 Deuteronomy 6:7 | The 7-Minute Rule and Discipleship Resources

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📧 In today’s email…

• 🏡 “We need to talk..”

• ⏰ The 7-minute rule

• 💯 How we can disciple our youth (one conversation at a time)

• 🍦🍦🍦 A triple-scoop of wisdom from Willard + more

 🧠 Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

___ _____ _____ ____ diligently __ your ________, and shall ____ __ them when ___ ___ in your _____,

and when you ____ by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:7

We need to talk.. 🏠️ 

Yesterday, we looked at this passage..

..And we noted 2 things:

1. Before God tells us to teach our children (or simply the youth in your life), He first wanted His commands written on our hearts

2. The word for teach here means to “engrave” or “teach incisively.”

The first part of verse 7 (‘you shall teach them diligently to your children’) begs us to ask the question: How?

How do we practically disciple our youth?

Verses 7, 8 and 9 give us some answers. Let’s zoom in on the bolded part of verse 7 today 👇️ 

One answer to “How?” is simply this: We need to talk about it.

Verse 7 tells us four specific times and places we can talk about the Way of Jesus:

1. When you sit in your house 🏠️ 

2. When you walk by the way (aka when you’re traveling outside of the house) 🚗 

3. When you lie down 🛌 

4. When you rise ⏰ 

You might notice - that list covers everywhere (home & not home) and always (from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep).

Below is a resource to help you talk about it with the young people in your life 👇️ 

The 7-minute rule ⏰ 

Studies have shown that it takes 7 minutes of conversation to get past small talk.

After 7 minutes, conversations enter new territory where people naturally open up to more meaningful conversation.

Thanks to the screen in your hand, though, many convos never make it to that 7-minute mark, which can make discipleship in the Way of Jesus pretty hard.

In order to teach our youth the Way of Jesus, we need to have conversations with our youth that regularly go beyond those 7 minutes.

The #1 resource I’ve found to help with this..

Axis.org is a non-profit (everything they do is free) that helps parents and pastors disciple their kids.

They believe that discipleship happens through one, ongoing conversation that lasts a lifetime. Instead of having a one-time “talk.”

My favorite resource is their newsletter because it:

• Keeps up with the latest trends in pop culture and translates them for us old folk so we can better understand their world

• Gives us simple conversation starters to engage with our youth in conversations that last > 7 minutes

Our kids are only 3 and 4, but their newsletter has already helped us talk to our kids about the Way of Jesus.

A few other resources to help you get past the 7-minute mark and have deeper conversations with the youth in your life:

• 📧 Axis.org’s newsletter to help you disciple your kids - subscribe here in one click

• 🗣️ Easy ways to start meaningful conversations with your kids from Fierce Parenting (link here)

• 📚️ The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch (link here)

Apply & respond 🏃‍♂️ 

Think about how you can do this practice at the dinner table, in your car or with the kids after bedtime stories.

Practice

Talk to one young person (a child, grandchild, a young person in your sphere) about one of the below values/practices of the Kingdom of God:

Bonus points: Go beyond talking about it and make it experiential. For example, go do something generous together.

Wisdom: 3 Quotes 🧐

"If we do not make formation in Christ the priority, then we're just going to keep on producing Christians that are indistinguishable in their character from many non-Christians."

Dallas Willard

“Making disciples of Jesus is the overflow of the delight in being disciples of Jesus.”

David Platt

“The greatest gift a church can receive is to have a group of families who take their responsibilities with such Christian seriousness that they are willing to completely alter their lifestyle to raise up disciples for Jesus Christ.”

Abraham Kuyper

Answer key ✅ 

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,

and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:7 

Here’s how to set up the Malachi Daily App 📱 👇️ 

1. 🔗 Tap here or the button below on your mobile phone. Or type app.malachidaily.com in your phone browser.

2. Once you’re there, follow the device-specific instructions that pop up and be sure to…

3.  🔔 Tap the notification bell and ‘Allow’ notifications

4.  ⚙️ Tap the settings icon to choose your translation & more

This is the #1 way to memorize the verses we’ll be studying via email.