“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children - Deuteronomy 4:9 (ESV) 

What does Moses mean by “take care?” The word is the same as that used in the next clause when Moses says to “keep” their souls diligently. The word is used over 400 times in the Old Testament, and it means to observe, guard, heed, keep, or take care. It is what Adam and Eve were supposed to do in the Garden of Eden (to keep it—Genesis 2:15). The flaming sword also guarded the entrance to the garden afterwards—Genesis 3:24. In both cases, the word is the same as ours here, when Moses tells the people to “take care.”

It may seem obvious to tell parents to take care, or it may not.  

The Importance of Taking Care 

Do parents take care? Certainly, many do, at least in some sense. But if we think about the things we tend to take care about, many of us find ourselves distracted by many things. There are concerns about school, about money, about sports, about achievement in general, about friends, and about family, not to mention the highs and lows that come along in life. Parents have to “take care” all the time. It is exhausting.  

If we are called to take care, to keep watch, or to observe, then we cannot do it about everything all at once.. Our attention is focused; we cannot care about everything equally. Taking care means to watch over or observe some things more than others. So, what is Moses commanding in particular? 

The rest of the verse makes clear that Moses is concerned that the current generation will forget what God has done for them and allow it to leave their heart. As a sort of goal, Moses tells them to make these things known to their children and grandchildren. Therefore, what Moses is concerned about with the current generation is a kind of carelessness, an inobservance, or inattentiveness to what God is doing and has done, so that they forget, the things depart, and their children never learn. This would be a disaster. 

Why do parents have such a hard job “taking care?” In short, we get distracted. Parents have much “to take care” about, so much so that the obvious things can easily be forgotten or neglected while more granular details are fussed over. For example, parents may find themselves focusing on particular abilities or desires their children may have; they may hope their child has a special ability that could be developed into something that would make their child “special,” all the while neglecting to care for the larger picture of who their child is and what their child is becoming. Specific goals can easily overshadow virtue formation and general moral development. 

Another reason that parents have a hard time taking care regarding their children is because they project their own hopes and desires onto their children, and so seek to achieve, avoid, or obtain things for themselves through their children. Children’s potential accomplishments easily become a consolation prize for dashed dreams and unrealized hopes on the part of the parent. This is the opposite of taking care. This is indulging personal selfish desires at the cost of our children. 

The Difficulty of Taking Care 

The fact that Moses commands the people to take care means that there is a danger that they will not. There are pressures. Parenting is hard. Staying focused on the right things is hard. We live in a time in which any craving can be indulged, any dream can be pursued, and any fantasy can be realized. The only limits on our pursuits are our time, our creativity, and our choices. It is easy to be distracted by all the shiny things in life, but not all that glitters is gold. Nevertheless, marketers and influencers around the world spend their careers honing skills and tools aimed at diverting our attention onto their products. Meanwhile, God’s Word sits on our desks, nightstands, bookshelves, and in our phones, the same Word as ever, ever relevant, ever powerful, ever incisive, ever divine. 

Parents must take care because there are innumerable ways to spend our attention and set our focus, and they are not all created equal. We are like fish swimming in water so filled with bait on hooks that we cannot help but brush up against them. It is tempting to take a nibble as we go, but when we do, we inevitably feel the tug pulling us upward and out of our intended path. We are so accustomed to distraction that we barely feel the pain in our consciences. 

What are parents to do? The picture painted sounds dreary, impossible, but it is not. Parents can take care. It is not an impossible task, but it is an earnest one. And this aspect of taking care is perhaps the most neglected. It is an earnest task that must be taken in earnest.  

Are we in earnest? Are we in earnest about taking care, about watching, observing, guarding, so that we are not led by the nose by people who are not interested in our good but in how our attention can line their pockets? How different our God is from them. He would have us watch, take care, so that we might live in a direction that leads to His honor by leading us in a direction that results in our flourishing. This is the good God we serve, but we must watch, because there are many false paths. 

Conclusion

Taking care is hard. It is hard to remain diligent over the years. It can seem undoable because it seems interminable. The fact is, however, that it is not. We are melodramatic about how hard and long things are. How long do we have to take care? How long must we be diligent? Until we die or Christ returns. Does that seem too long? Consider our lives. We are a vapor. Our lives are like the grass that is green today and gone tomorrow. It is not so big a thing as we imagine because life is not so long a thing as we imagine. Our reaction is overblown because our assessment of life is exaggerated.  

We can take care. We must take care. It is not so hard a thing as we think because time is faster than our estimation of it. Our lives will be over soon. We have a few short years with our children. They are crucial to filling the earth, subduing it, and exercising dominion over it. They are those who will steward the earth after we are gone until Christ comes back. Do we have something better to do than to take care regarding how we parent? I think not.