Five Ways to Teach Your Kids about God
Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation. Joel 1:3
God never intended for faith to be merely caught. It must be taught. Yes faith is contagious, but the Bible is filled with verses calling parents, grandparents and role models to be very deliberate about making sure faith gets passed from one generation to the next.
I frequently talk to adults who have decided to leave the faith decision up to the next generation. They somehow think they’re invading a child’s privacy or violating some constitutional amendment if they’re too aggressive in teaching the child about matters of faith.
Such thinking is naïve and dangerous. While every person is ultimately responsible for his or her own relationship with God, we who have faith are equally responsible for what we do with it. And telling others, especially the next generation and especially those whom God has put in our care, is an urgent priority.
When you talk to your child about God, you’re not brainwashing him or keeping him from thinking for himself. If anything, you’re simply leveling the playing field.
Trust me, there is plenty of cultural stimuli out there that will challenge your kids’ faith. When you teach your daughter to love the Lord, not only are you equipping her to handle the onslaught of culture that says God is irrelevant, but you’re also doing exactly what God has commanded you to do. Tell the next generation . . . .
Let’s talk about how. Here are five ways to help pass your faith on to your kids:
Pray over them . From the day they are born, pray with and for your children. Whether they’re in a nursery, a bedroom or a dorm room, your kids need to comfortable hearing you pray for them. It needs to normal.
Read the Bible to them . Get a good children’s illustrated Bible and read it to your kids every night when you tuck them in. Read those great stories of our faith to them. In doing so, you’ll show them that reading the Bible is a normal part of a believer’s daily life and you’ll be helping them begin to grasp the great truths of our faith.
Talk about your own faith journey . This is very helpful, especially when your kids are older. Share your faith story with your kids. Talk about how you came to Christ, the times you rebelled from or doubted God, and the times God answered your prayers. Take faith out of the realm of theory and make it real for them. Be open and honest about how you’ve seen God work in your life.
Worship with them . This one is very important and is commanded all over the scriptures. We actually added a monthly family worship service at our church because we feel so strongly about this. Worship, like faith, isn’t just caught, it’s taught. Kid’s need to learn how to engage in the public worship arena—singing, praying together, lifting hands and kneeling, and taking Communion—from the example of worshipping parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other role models.
Pray for godly adults to invest in them . As you obviously won’t be the only adult who impacts your child’s life, you need to pray for those others who do. Pray that God will bless your child by giving her access to amazing, godly adults and leaders. Pray for her coaches, her teachers, her small group leaders and her mentors. Pray that they will sow the seeds of a deep and profound faith into your child.
God never intended for the next generation to have to grope around in the dark to find him. Teaching our kids about him isn’t just serious business, it’s a command. And the future of our homes, our cities and our country depends on it.
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