"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." ~ Deuteronomy 6:7
Often, children are good at asking questions that cause us to dig deeper into our faith in order to answer them. As I attempt to follow the command of the verse above, I am delighted when our children present me with this opportunity.
Recently, our nine-year-old asked me how we know that God is real. As we talked it through that night, here's what I shared with her.
1. God's Holy Spirit lives within us. In Romans 8:16, we are told, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." If we are saved, we have the Holy Spirit of God living in us and moving in our hearts.
2. Answered prayer. As we take our requests to God, we can see Him answering our prayers, often in ways that can only be explained as His hand at work. As parents, it's important that we tell our children when God answers prayer in our own lives.
3. Faith. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) As we come to God in faith, earnestly pursuing Him, He will reveal Himself to us.
One of the greatest rewards of parenting is to teach our children about our faith and see them develop a personal relationship with Jesus.
What Bible principles have you talked about with your children?
THose conversations are so essential and such a blessing as a parent. This post ties into the theme that I read this morning on proverbs31. Thank you for the encouragement.
ReplyDeleteWe talk a lot about death & worry. I lovelovelove that my kids have a healthy, true grasp on death - that the only people it's a little bit sad for for a short time is us left on earth; that as long as the people loved Jesus, we'll meet up in Heaven; that we don't have to worry about us dying, b/c only God knows when our time will be, and He is always protecting us, so we don't even have to worry about it. We don't have to worry about anything - any time we're scared or even just nervous, we simply ask God to work it out for us, to take away our fear, and help us remember He's taking care of us. :-) Childlike faith is so precious!
ReplyDeleteWe've been having really deep conversations with our children lately, on many different topics - I just love those conversations when they dig deep and ask profound questions, or realise something about God or the Word and come and tell us what it is. Sometimes I think children have a better concept of some of these things than adults because adults tend to over-complicate things!
ReplyDeleteYes, so important to share and nurture their faith - and I'm learning that my faith is growing as I talk with my girls ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post, Tracey. The verse you posted is from one of my memory passages I'm working on. :) We've been talking about assurance of salvation and contentment lately! I love the wonderful answers you gave to your daughter's great question!
ReplyDeleteHave a good week ahead and Happy Valentine's Day!
For God so loVed the world
that He gAve
His onLy
bEgotten
SoN
That whosoever
believeth In Him
should Not perish
but have evErlasting life!
Blessings,
Katie
p.s. I hope that publishes all spaced out correctly above ~ I'll give it a whirl. It's supposed to read "VALENTINE" straight down in the middle of John 3:16. :) Received that in the mail from a friend and thought it was great! ♥
Ok, so it didn't publish with the correct spacing, but it is neat if you write it all so it works out that way. :)
DeleteIt was worth a try!
Katie