Teaching my Children about God

Of course, as a mother, my most fervent prayer is for the salvation of my children.  BUT that has to come after they have a complete understanding of who God is.   The Old Testament is FULL of beautiful narratives that point us to Christ and teach us about God’s character. Just like our children learn our character (trustworthiness, dependablilty, etc), they need to learn God’s character too.   

My biggest struggle with my toddlers was bringing Christ into our daily conversations. I wanted to allow them to really see my dependence on Him.   Of course, they see me doing my quiet time, they see me having prayer and leading prayer throughout the day.  But were they really seeing that I could not survive without God?  They same way my children could not survive without me meeting their needs?    

After some advice and guidance from my husband, I started to point things out to my children.   Some conversations were basic, “I am so hungry.  Did you know that we only have food because God created food (Gen 9:3) and He provided Pop (that’s what they call their dad) a good job that allows us the money to buy nice food even though we don’t even ‘deserve’ it (Matt 6:25-34).”  It postures them in thankfulness, and a nice side effect is that is has made my children a little less picky eaters.    Some conversations were harder – “I am going to spank you now because I have to teach you obedience in my house (Eph 6:1-3) so that you learn how to be obedient to God when you are grown like me (Rev. 14:12).” Of course this usually gets a little deeper on how God is our Father too and He loves my kids more than I could ever love them, but he hates sin.  I could continue on a whole blog post on this, and maybe I will soon.  But back to the original point – showing my children the character of God throughout daily routines.  

I also heard from Abbey Wedgeworth on her Toddler discipleship stories on instagram (@abbeywedgeworth) on complimenting our children- instead of saying “You are so _____,” try “I am glad God made you so _____.” That little change has also allowed some great conversations with my children. This reminds them that they were created by a loving God who took the time to give them specific qualities unique to them (Psalm 139:14, Luke 12:7, Matt 10:30).  They can begin to learn their worth to God and learn how much he cares for them.  

In our daily routines we are establishing our dependence on Christ to meet (and usually exceed) our needs AND reminding our children that God created and cares for them.   Then, we begin reading these narratives from the Old Testament.  We don’t leave out the judgement pages (our children need to know that our God is just in order to learn how great their need for Christ is).   We explain that before Christ, God gave the Law (even in the garden, he had one rule).  Any type of disobedience had severe consequences.   Therefore, you can see though each story in the Bible, God gives the rules and the people disobey. They either repent and God is merciful, or they do not repent and God sends judgement.   That is obviously a severely watered-down broad overview, but these are foundational truths that our kids need understand.   They can’t think “as long as I act good, then God is happy”.   I am sure you’ve seen your child sin multiple times today.  Therefore, they deserve death unless the Holy Spirit calls them to repentance. 

Think about it, if we leave out the judgement of God and only talk about His mercy, grace, and forgiveness, it doesn’t create a thankfulness for and dependence on Jesus.   If we don’t discuss what I (and my children) truly deserve then how can we be thankful for the cross?  I am not proposing a doom and gloom teaching of God, but just an accurate portrayal of His character.  They depend on us for all their knowledge before they are able to read on their own. It would be a big disservice to leave out critical parts of God’s character especially in light of our children’s eternity.  

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to introduce God and point out His character to your children.  I have a few resources that I use to lead our daily Bible time that I will link up in another post.  Feel free to leave a comment or feedback on our page if you have anything to add! 🙂 

The Pace of the Children

The pace of the children.  A phrase, quoted from Genesis 33:14, I have learned to repeat on a daily basis.  Jacob was just reunited with his brother in a beautiful reunion. (If you aren’t familiar with this story, let me encourage you to read through Genesis!)  Esau suggests that they walk together to Seir as an opportunity to catch up.   Being aware of “the children God has graciously entrusted me” (Gen 33:5), Jacob politely declines the offer. Can you imagine passing up the opportunity to catch up with a brother you haven’t spoken to in years?  In humility, he doesn’t want to slow his brother down, but in care he doesn’t want to rush his family nor his animals.  At the pace of the children.  

As I was studying through Genesis {and learning so much about the character of God}, I read through Matthew Henry’s commentary.   Henry explains

“prudence and tenderness of Jacob ought to be imitated by those that have the care and charge of young people in the things of God. They must not be over-driven, at first, by heavy tasks in religious services, but led, as they can bear, having their work made as easy to them as possible.  Christ, the good Shepard does so, Isaiah 40:11.” *

Wow.   We have the same end goal, to reach our destination, but it is so easy to kill ourselves before we get there.   Imagine if Jacob had just made his family and his animals speed up to the pace of Esau. How many of them would have made it?   Maybe some, maybe all, but definitely not without injury or consequence. And what if he had asked Esau and his men to slow down to the pace of the children?  That is unfair to Esau and the 400 men with him.  

Whew.  What does that mean for me as a mother?   I can damage, injure, or even kill my children if I am not careful.   At the pace of the children.  He did not let the children plan the route, he just led them and set the pace at a comfortable level while he led them.    He didn’t let outside factors (like reuniting with his brother after X years) affect his pace. He didn’t expect his brother to change pace to match his.  What a reminder.   Leading my children at the pace they can bear and leaving everyone else to do the same.  

Now let’s go back to verse 5 here.   This is what gives him this perspective to care for his children so well.   “The Children which God hath graciously given thy servant.”   He sees these children as God’s gift to him.   Children are a heritage of the Lord (Ps 128:3) and Jacob was fully aware of that. He also sees that they are Choice gifts.   Precious gifts that were specifically selected to be in Jacobs care and he takes that responsibility seriously.  Shouldn’t we, as mothers, do the same?  Instead of seeing them as burdens, but viewing them as our most prized possessions.  Taking tender care of their souls and leading them toward Christ in everything that we do.   

This motto is usually a reminder to slow down, but there have been times when it has shown me that I need to speed up.  I have been guilty of thinking, “oh they aren’t ready to memorize scripture yet, they’re only toddlers.”  But guess what? They can memorize lyrics to a song, and they were ready.   They taught me to speed up.   At the pace of the children.  

It only seemed fitting to use this as the title of my blog.  

Welcome! 

*https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Gen/Gen_033.cfm?a=33014 In case you want to read more from Matthew Henry.