Teaching Our Children To Love The Lord
Something shifted this year in our family. It is not something one could see with the naked eye. No one would ever know if I did not share it with them. Even though this change was tiny, it has made a huge impact on me as a mother.
Before this year, I had in my mind that my children were too young to understand some of the aspects of Jesus. Why He came to earth? What does it mean for us to accept His grace? What is mercy? We are saved simply because of Jesus, nothing else.
I’m going to admit that I did not grasp some of these concepts until I was a grown adult. I grew up in church my entire life, heard all the Bible stories, knew how to pray openly with Jesus, and I thought I knew what it took to be saved. I had all that at my fingertips as a child and still misunderstood a lot of the gospel. My perfectionist mentality blinded me to what it meant to fully accept God’s grace. I assumed my children were too young right now as well and that they would eventually learn it.
Our son, who is 11 years old, has a desire to get baptized and as we are sitting at the dinner table one evening, he asked me, “Mom, what were you scared of when you got baptized?” I thought about this and said I was not scared of anything. He then told me he was scared that he would not be a good enough Christian. It hit me right then that I was missing the mark on teaching him about grace. I was then able to sit and have a conversation with him revolved around Jesus and what it fully means to be baptized. It is only through Jesus’ grace that we are free from the bondage of having to perform in our Christian walk. To be saved it is not Jesus + being good, or Jesus + never sinning, or Jesus + going to church every Sunday, or Jesus + reading the Bible and no other books, or Jesus + anything. I was able to sit and talk with him about how we all make mistakes and that is the reason Jesus came to earth and died for our sins. We are expected to try to live a life of obedience to Christ, but we all stumble and mess up from time to time (or daily).
I saw then how important it is to not place our children in a box, thinking we shouldn’t talk about certain subjects because they may not be ready. Only God knows if they are ready or not. It is my job as a parent to tell my children the truth about the gospel. Tell them repeatedly. If they are not capable of understanding it the first time, eventually God will open their eyes to the truth.
I was depending on our church to inform my children about these tough subjects, and I realized this year that it was my job as their parent to tell them the good news. Thankfully we have our churches, friends, and Christian schools to help us along the way, but that doesn’t mean we need to rely on those avenues to teach our children.
We are called to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind. We are to do this continually and openly. Deuteronomy 6 tells us to keep these commands and laws in our hearts so that us, our children, and their children after them may fear the Lord. What we focus on, talk about, and demonstrate goes directly to our children. If we are digging deeper in God’s Word, having open conversations about God in our homes, praying together as a family, and discussing either the sermons we hear on Sunday mornings or what our children are learning in Sunday school; we are clearing the path for deeper conversations about Jesus with our children. Outside learning is a good thing, but the number one way children learn to accept the gospel is in their own homes.
Our children can grasp more than we think they can. I challenge you this week to just start a conversation with your children, grandchildren, neighbors, or your children’s friends about Jesus. Children are willing and eager to soak up His truths and His goodness.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Let’s build a firm foundation for our children to stand on as they grow in this world. Teach them the truths that will continually help them with their walk with Christ. Give them confidence in who Jesus is and what He is doing in their lives before they even walk out of your house. There is no greater joy than knowing our children are walking in the truth.
Digging Deeper:
Read Deuteronomy 6, 3 John 1:4, 1 John 3:1, Joshua 24:14-16
How have you been relying on someone outside of your family to teach your children about Jesus?
How can you open conversations with your children?
How can you develop time together as a family to read God’s Word together?