December 4, 2018
During the Thanksgiving weekend, my family and my brothers went to Mexico to celebrate our father’s 90th birthday, along with some of his cousins who are still alive. What a wonderful experience we had as a family expressing our gratitude to God for our parents and grandparents (also Seventh-day Adventists) and for what they did for us, especially passing to my brother and me the Christian values in the context of the Seventh-day Adventist faith. Following our parents’ example, we also are doing the same with our children. We are thankful to our parents for their example, and we praise God for them.
This process of teaching about God and passing faith values reminds me of the instructions God gave to Moses in Deuteronomy 6:2, 6-9: “that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged… And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
What a great task and sacred responsibility the Lord has given to parents and grandparents. May the Lord help us all to do our best for passing this spiritual heritage to our children and grandchildren. I invite you to keep praying WITH your children every day; I invite you to look for allies to help you passing these spiritual values to them. Our Christian Adventist school teachers and the Sabbath School teachers are those allies who we can count on.
This is the right time to start making plans to enroll or re-enroll your children in any Seventh-day Adventist school, academy, college or university. Should you have any question or concern in regards to how to finance Adventist Christian education for your children, please contact our SCC Office of Education (818-546-8451), and they will help and guide you with this matter.
Our children matter! Let’s take them with us to Heaven!
Your fellow traveler,
Velino A. Salazar
President
Southern California Conference