Introducing Your Child To God
Have you wondered how to share your faith with your child? This post shows parents how to teach their kids about God in practical, encouraging steps.
Y’all, do your kids ask you a gazillion questions a day? Like, literally, a gazillion? Mine do! My boys are 2 and 4. This is just a beautiful, exhausting age.
I love it, but I feel like a failure sometimes. Sometimes I’m too tired, too drained, and just flat-out don’t have the answers to their questions, especially when they are about Jesus and faith. I don’t seize each chance, and once-in-a-childhood moments ripen and rot away.
I guess it’s fine if I can’t explain everything…But Jesus, and heaven, and God and all that? Yikes. I don’t want to be sleeping on the job for those questions. I’ve thought of a few ways to intentionally teach my kids about Jesus.
- Pray out loud, regularly. Relax, though. I don’t mean long-winded advanced church-y prayers. (If you are like me, these prayers happen less than they used to.) No – just verbalize the thoughts and hopes you have during the day.
God, please help us find our car keys.
God, I’m frustrated – help me to be patient with Ty.
God, help us find our car keys.
God, please help us not get lost.
God, Tommy is sick. Help him feel better.
God, please help us find our car keys. (I am pretty sure Sam is going to think, “Please help us find our car keys,” is a verse in the actual Bible. Oh well.) But the thing is – guess what’s happened since I pray out loud? Sam, too, asks God for help.
In the past few days, he’s asked God to help him find his stuffed animals, help him be a good football player, and please stop the rain. Of course prayer isn’t all about making God give you everything you want, but what a wonderful first step, to know that God wants to hear their little prayers.
- Pray with them. My husband is better at this than I am. At night, they say these precious prayers. Todd has Sam repeat after him: “Thank you for Mommy.” Thank you for Mommy. “Help me to have a good attitude.” Help me to have a good attitude. etc. etc. Todd is showing Sam that he prays, teaching him how, and making it a positive experience. It is not long, and that’s okay.
Introducing Your Child To God Through Everyday Language
- Throughout your day, talk about two things:
- God made everything.
- God loves them.
This is directly copied from my mother, when I watched her teach two-year-olds Sunday school. I love it because it is so do-able. I tried to teach Sam the story of Joseph and the coat today while I was making turkey tettrazini…I’m pretty sure I lost brain cells and mixed up a good portion of the details. But I can usually get “God made everything” right, even on a few hours of sleep.
- Get a good children’s Bible, and a good children’s devotional. These are our favorites:
Devotions That Introduce Kids To Jesus
We also absolutely love the Adventures In Odyssey audio series. They really bring Bible stories to life! If you only buy one set, I would buy one of the ones that tell Bible stories, such as these:
- And finally, one more tip: ask God to help me teach my kids about Him. I hesitate to even say this, because it is so obvious. But if I need help, I should ask for it. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. {James 1:5}
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If you’re looking for more instruction and encouragement, check out my e-book, “How To Introduce Your Child To Jesus” which is absolutely free!
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Jessica, I want to thank you so much for this post. It was just what I needed to read tonight, and makes me feel like I can teach my little guy about Jesus, and that it doesn’t have to be overwhelming or complicated. Thank you for your wonderful, easy to implement ideas!! We have both of the books you suggested, and they are awesome!
Thank you for your kind comments, Cassie! And for your other suggestions! Can’t wait to check those out!
Check out the Praise Baby CD/DVD series. We love the DVDs and even though they are more for babies, my 2 year old still loves them and asks to watch them!
I’ve been doing so many of these things and seeing great results. Ezra is asking for us to “talk ta Jesus” multiple times a day and wow I’m so glad because I desperately need it. And just Wednesday night, we were out at night and he looked up at the moon. I asked “Who made the moon?” and he responded “GOD made da moon!” I was a little shocked but so happy and proud!!
Love this post and am definitely sharing!!!
I did forget about those! We have one, and it was a lifesaver especially when my kids were sick! It’s so calming! I’ll have to check out the others! Thanks, Aprille! 🙂
You are welcome! We have all four plus the Christmas one. As I type this I’m hiding in the kitchen with a bowl of soup while he’s in the playyard watching Praise Baby…He was driving me NUTS and I was about to pull out my hair!!!
I also wanted to suggest the Jesus Calling Bible and the Seeds Family Worship CDs. The CDs are scripture put to music and they are WONDERFUL! That’s all we listen to in the car now, and I am finally memorizing some scripture, just by listening to them!
We have the Jesus Storybook Bible and both editions of the Little Blessings line for the Daily Devotions for Preschoolers and have really enjoyed them for about a year now. I really liked your point about praying out loud to teach them to turn to God, I need to put that into practice. Another recommendation I have for those out there that do or are interested in doing a home-based Sunday School is The Bible Study Guide for All Ages – Beginner Student Pages (geared towards 4 – 5 year olds but very reasonable for 3 and 6 too). We started this around 3. There are 416 total lessons if you get the full set, but you can buy individual packs of 26 lessons each. There are also accompanying Beginner Timeline (think – giant flashcards of key people and facts in the Bible) and a CD (90 songs) that are used. The lessons are very interactive. If you click this link, it’ll show you an example PDF of a lesson (2 pages). I think this is GREAT and my oldest always begs for Sunday School time to do these.
http://biblestudyguide.com/shop/beginner-student-pages.php?osCsid=01fea2240657f1791af48aae83084a17
Thank you for this. I feel like a failure as a mom sometimes because I have been wondering HOW do you teach your kids about Jesus at such a young age? My son is 2 1/2 and I feel like he should know so much more about Jesus than he does. Anyway, thank you for this. I am going to check out the links you provided and use these tips you shared.
Thank you for your honest comments, Franchesca! I know God answers the prayers of the humble, so he will help us!! 🙂 Thanks for reading! 🙂
Thank you!!
Songs 4 Saplings CDs are our favorite! We also love Seeds Family Worship CDs, they are also free on spotify. 🙂
I serve in a 2-3 years old Sunday School class.This made so much sense and the tips affirmed a lot of things I’ve learned. Especially about how telling kids that God made everything and God loves them. Keep sharing truth.
Thanks for commenting. Blessings to YOU for serving the little ones 🙂
I loved this! Thanks so much. I, too, have found that my children soak in those spoken prayers I utter when I’m frustrated or confused or just need an answer. It may not be my best “prayer time” but my kids are learning that God is the One we turn to. 🙂
Isn’t it an incredible comfort to know that the best way we can teach our children about God is by living a life that honors Him? Thanks for sharing this beautiful post!
Please send an e book on “How To Introduce Your Child To Jesus”
thankyou for this e-book for free. it would really help me to introduce God to my daughter