Most people will probably agree that it’s important to talk to children about God and teach them about God, but what does the Bible tell us about why it’s important?
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
So God wants us not only to love Him with all our heart, soul, and might, but also to share that love for God with our children.
He wants us to talk with them about how/why we love Him.
He tells us to talk with our children about Him when we sit in our homes, and when we are walking around, and when we lie down, and all over again when we rise the next day.
According to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, “a child’s understanding of God will ultimately inform every aspect of their life.”
We think a lot about teaching them to walk and talk and tie their shoes and brush their teeth, but how much do we think about teaching them to know and understand God? If their understanding of God will inform every other part of their life, then teaching them about God should probably be right at the top of the list of what we teach our children.
Psalm 78:4 says, “We will not hide them from our children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders He has done.”
It is a reminder of God’s goodness and kindness to His people even when they are rebellious.
It is a reminder for us that we are to tell our children about God. To tell them the story of God and what He has done.
We are not to hide this from our children. Not even the rebellious parts of what His people have done in the past, because it is important for them to know and understand the rich history of God’s people and how much He loves us and continues to do so even when/if we rebel.
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
God is mysterious in many ways. And even if you’ve been a believer and studier of the Bible for a long time, there are probably still things that you don’t fully understand and things you don’t know. We aren’t meant to know everything, God says we won’t know or understand everything because some things are just for Him to know.
That can make parent’s hesitant to talk to their kids about God. We like to think we know more or are sort of experts before we teach our kids about new things. BUT since we can’t know everything anyway, we might as well just share what we do know and what we have experienced
Focus on the Family says that we can “never really grasp God’s nature until we learn to look at Him through our children’s eyes.” They point out that we can continue learning about God by teaching our children about God.
Focus on the Family also reminds us that “knowing God is not a matter of mastering difficult theological concepts. . . . It’s all about childlike trust.”
Allowing our children to see our childlike trust of God can help them to develop their own trust in Him, and we should encourage that in any way possible.
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