Sharing Jesus with Children
Growing up in a Christian, home I always heard “Jesus loves you, Elizabeth.” And “Love Jesus and love others, Elizabeth.” These truths are burned into my memory. Now as a young adult, the opportunity to impact children like my family did for me has become my reality. I have the chance to tell children, “you are loved, important, worthy, and redeemed.” But, how can I do that in a way that a 1 year old, or a 5 year old, or a 10 year old will really understand? And how in the world can I get through to the teenagers? Children need to hear from childhood to adolescence that there is a SAVIOR desperately seeking THEM. Think of the pain that could be prevented if a child, at a young age, understood the meaning of “Jesus loves YOU!” So how do I go about that?
I have the privilege of taking care of a 15 month old baby girl two days each week and helping with her older sisters who are 6 and 7 years old. After I finish with that sweet family, I drive straight to the middle school to pick up my 11 and 13 year old friends - occasionally getting their 15 year old sister from the high school, too. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are packed with conversations about stuffed animals, baby dolls, little bugs found outside and how beautiful tutus always have sparkles on them. Moving into those afternoons, the talks shift to cross country, ice skating, gymnastics and the football game on Friday. These days are delightfully exhausting and have such potential to bless little lives forever. I get the chance to talk to six little humans about the wonderful love Jesus has for each of them. So thinking practically, I have to have a game plan.
Starting with how I share Jesus with the baby.
“Baby, do you know Jesus loves you?”
This is a simple question you can whisper over a child as you rock them to sleep. Let the sweet child hear the name of Jesus as often as possible so that when they get a little older they will already have a small exposure to His glorious name.
Sing songs at bedtime, naptime, or at any point of the day - when chaos arises and crying cannot stop and all you can do is rock and sing to that small little screamer.
Songs like Jesus Loves Me, Silent Night, Jesus loves the Little Children, This Little Light of Mine or anything else can really help you connect with the child on a more meaningful level. Even hymns or the latest worship song that you love are a great way to expose a baby to the sweet truths of Jesus. This also brings YOU back to the calming love of the Father. Let times of chaos be calmed with a simple song. Refocus on what really matters, and allow both you and the baby to hear beautiful truth in a song.
Pray.
Pray with the baby before bedtime. Pray with the baby when she cannot calm down. Pray with the baby before meals. Let prayer direct the day’s transitions. This will make a difference as the child grows. From infancy, they will know that prayer guides each day.
Moving into the ways we can share Jesus with little children.
When driving in the car, try asking pointed, purposeful questions.
Recently, I had the coolest conversation with the 6 year old I watch. She told me she really wanted snow. I told her to ask Jesus. She did NOT understand why. Then, I got to explain to her that she can ask Jesus ANYTHING. Her eyes got big and she did not understand. How could little Ruby talk to Jesus? Well, I told her that Jesus WANTS her to talk to Him. He loves when she prays and asks for things. Jesus will sometimes say Yes and sometimes say No, but she should always talk to Him. This conversation all happened in the drive to school one morning.
When you have your little ones in the car, they are stuck. They might squirm and get the back of your seat dirty with their muddy little feet that can’t help but kick the back of your chair, but they are strapped in and not moving anywhere. So, try and ask them questions. Ask them things like: Do you know what Jesus thinks about you? Do you like to pray? Why did you help your teacher in class today? Why does being good matter? Why does getting in trouble at school matter? Allow these questions to guide your conversation, and then tell them about Jesus in your answers.
When disciplining, explain to the child that Obedience, Respect, and Kindness are what Jesus wants.
When you have to tell a child “no, don’t do that”, or send them to their room, or make them apologize, always explain why. Being naughty is not bad because mommy thinks it is. Being naughty is bad because it means you are doing something Jesus does not want. Tell the child that our purpose in life is to seek Jesus. Obedience and respect are all goals that will help us be like Jesus and know Him.
Pray.
Back to prayer. Prayer should guide all our days. So do not let that change, even though the child gets older. Every meal, before bed, or even if the child has a question or a desire - stop and pray. Let them move towards their middle school years with a habit of conversation with Jesus.
Children’s Bibles
Children’s Bibles are a great tool to use with your little ones. Give them their first bible as a present. Have them look at the pictures when they need to settle down. Read a story to them every day or every night before bed. If they have a question or there is something that they need an example for, go to this book. Let the bible be your explanation to some of their questions, and let it be a tool you use to help guide conversation. Do you hear, “I am scared,” or, “I am angry,” or “I can’t do that”? Pause, brainstorm, and then read them a story that relates. Or if they ask, “Why do I need to share?” or, “Why do I have to be nice to my brother?” look to their Bible stories to read about Joseph or Joshua.
Introduce Quiet Time
Now that the child is a little older, give them the opportunity to spend time quietly with Jesus every day. It may only be five minutes, but have them spend five minutes by themselves with a bible or just quietly praying. Perhaps, have them color a sheet that displays a bible story. Teach them that they need quiet time with Jesus daily.
Veggie Tales
This is a great way to have your children learn about Jesus, and it gives you a chance to get things done while they are distracted. Veggie tales is a silly children’s movie series that explains various bible stories and talks about Jesus. It is a wonderful way to have a calm 45 minutes and teach your children about Jesus.
Now, to the challenge: Teenagers.
Discipline with Jesus at the center.
There really is not a huge difference between them and younger children. If you have to ground a teen, or take away their phone, or perform any act of discipline, point them back to love. At this age it feels like the world is coming to an end on a daily basis. Everything is big and dramatic and scary. “What if someone thinks I am weird?” “What if my friends see my parents and think I am weird because my parents are?” “What if I don’t have XYZ and then no one wants to be my friend?” These are just a few thoughts that just about every teenager has. So when they mess up, it is CRUCIAL to explain that they are LOVED. Parents or any discipline may seem like the enemy, which makes it crucial that whenever discipline is necessary to ensure that the teen knows they are LOVED, FORGIVEN and REDEEMED. Tell them that punishment is necessary to help guide them from harm in the future. Tell them that you LOVE them and that mistakes are a part of life. Tell them that discipline is a tool the Lord has given you to help protect them and raise them to honor Jesus. BE CAREFUL. Grace is the key to discipline because without it legalism will DESTROY your voice, and then your child will not listen to you or think you know anything. Discipline is NECESSARY. Punishment is painful but good. Discipline your children, but do it with GRACE. They are NOT the enemy. They are sneaky, and they lie, and they have words like daggers, but it is a result of sin - not who they are.
Pray.
Continue to pray with your children. They are older now, but showing them that prayer should guide their lives is even more crucial now! Pray with them over meals, pray over them on the drive to school, tell them when you are praying for them. Let prayer be a common and daily conversation topic. At this point there is not a whole lot you can do, but if your child knows to pray they will escape teen years with less scrapes than without it.
Teaching children about Jesus is so challenging and so rewarding. I hope that some of these tools will help you feel equipped. YOU ARE! If you can only take one thing away from this, my biggest tool I could offer would be: Tell your children EVERY DAY “Love Jesus.” If they Love Jesus everything is going to work out. His Will be done.
3 Crafty Ways to Teach Your Kids About Jesus
When talking with parents of younger children, we often get asked the question- how do we teach our young children about God? We know the idea of our heavenly Father may be difficult for a 2-year-old to comprehend, so we've pulled three different crafts that show children what it means to be a follower of Christ. If you have any ideas that you want to share, please email us at info@amazinggrace.life. We'd love to hear from you!
Craft #1: Searching Our Hearts
God looks at our hearts. “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
Since God looks at our hearts, shouldn’t we be more concerned with our souls than our bodies? This is what we want our kids to learn. “Look deep into my heart, God, and find out everything I am thinking. Don’t let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true.” Psalm 139:23-24
Craft #2: Jesus Calms the storm
This Jesus calms the storm craft is meant to equip you to teach children about the Bible story of Jesus calming the storm found in Mark 4:35-41. If you are new here, I want to briefly get you up to date. My church asked me to create all the craft ideas for AWANA Cubbies. If you are unfamiliar with AWANA, it is a great children’s program developed to teach children about God. The Cubbies portion is focused on preschool age. That said, this craft can been used for kids of all ages. It can be used in the Cubbies program, Sunday School, or other venues meant to educate children about Jesus.
Craft #3: He is Risen!
"He has risen!" Mathew 28:6. Here is a simple craft to do with your kids to help them remember the reason we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus."
Hope in Jesus
Coming to know who Jesus is, the Son of God who sacrificed everything for each of us, marks a beautiful transformation in life. It’s the beginning of real HOPE. We all feel a deep longing in our hearts to know and be known. I can remember as a child trying to wrap my head around the idea that the God of the universe sent His only son for our sake, and that His son, who is one with God, loved us enough to die for our sins. I didn’t realize I was a sinner. I thought I wasn’t so bad. And then life’s twists and turns allowed me to be broken and realize my great need for someone to love me exactly as I am. I began to go further down and deeper in. I began to read my bible to learn more about Jesus. Aloneness and heartache can help us know Him better. Sometimes when we find nowhere else to turn we cry out to Jesus. And what I learned in the darkest hours alone was an increased understanding of Jesus’ great love for me, of His unchangeable character and trustworthiness. The thread of trust was woven into a strong and coherent bond. If we can just know Him better, we will trust Him more fully; and when we trust Him, we can stop focusing on our troubles. And that is where we find HOPE.
Even if we sort of fall into trusting Jesus because we have no other choice, He is so kind to meet us there and show us His character. Pray to Him; read His book. Knowing that someone all-powerful is trustworthy and will never leave me gives me great hope. All of the Old Testament pointed forward toward the coming of Jesus, our Savior. “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah 43:2-3
God’s word all points to His great love for us, the gift of His son Jesus, and His desire for us to know Him through His son Jesus. If you feel a deep longing in your heart to be loved, exactly as you are, you can ask Jesus to fill that desire and He will answer. And you can get to know Him better by reading the bible and learning more about what He said while He was here on earth. And the more you get to know Him, the more confidence you have to face everything with HOPE for the future. Because if you read the end of the story, you see that Jesus is victorious and if we accept Him as Savior we will be with Him. That’s hope.
Why Do You Pray Out Loud?
Someone asked me one time, why do you pray out loud? I had to think about that for a minute. For me: praying out loud helps me feel a connection to God the minute I begin praying. It helps me to not get distracted or lose focus on whatever it is that I am praying about. A lot of times I pray out loud in the name of Jesus, asking Him to bind the evil one from entering my thoughts. I don’t even give Satan the acknowledgement of who he is. That’s why I call him the evil one, the devil, or deceiver because that is who he is.
If you pray “In the Name of Jesus, evil one get behind me” the Lord will answer your prayer, because you said, “In the name of Jesus.” Jesus is the only one who can know your thoughts. The devil can only hear them. "And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, 'Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?'" Matthew 9:4.
Praying out loud makes it more personal to me. The bible says: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” – James 5:16. When I hear myself saying the words out loud, it helps me stay focused.
My prayer journal is divided into different sections. One section holds my own personal prayers, while other sections include prayers for family, friends, world, police, firefighters, government/military and teachers and even an important section about miracles. I write the date and the prayer down, and I pray for that person or persons for weeks. Sometimes even for years. When the prayer has been answered, I write the date it was answered and a brief description of how it was answered.
If you believe in Jesus, when you die, you will go to heaven. But let me make this clear, you must believe in Him and ask Him to come into your life. When you go to heaven, your body will be free of all disease, sin, hurt, pain, sadness, even loneliness. The Bible tells us: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Years ago, I was in a bible study at Fellowship Bible Church and the teacher told us to be careful how we pray. For instance, if you are praying for a friend who has cancer, and pray for healing, or complete healing, healing from something could mean you are praying for them to go to heaven. Ultimately, if you pray for healing, going to heaven is the answer to complete healing from all aliments. So instead, I started praying like this, “Dear Lord, please remove the cancer and heal my friend, this side of heaven.” I want to make sure God knows I want my friend healed while she is here on earth and not take her to heaven!
I always pray out loud during my morning prayer time, and again right before I go to bed. All throughout the day I pray silently. I call them popcorn prayers. Ephesians 6:18 says: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
I’m constantly sending up little prayers. For instance, if I hear of a friend in a crisis situation, or see an ambulance driving by, I pray for the people in it, or if I see violence on T.V., I pray for the families, police and victims. Paul says to pray without ceasing! 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Praying Through....
Prayer is an attitude of the heart. It is trust. It is knowing who God is and understanding the attributes of a loving Father. Sometimes what I want isn’t good for me. Sometimes another’s actions cause me harm. Sometimes evil just happens without any apparent cause. But in all things I develop strength, peace, and joy through knowing that my Father in heaven loves me and wants what is best for me. When I trust Him, I can face any circumstance, because I am not focused on the here and now, but on Him. When my son was sick and the pediatrician’s face fell, he took my hand and said, “you know why we are running these tests, don’t you?” then I knew that I should be terrified. I had nowhere to turn but prayer. I cried out in my heart, “Jesus, help me.” Help me carry on. Help me get through this day. Help me care for my child. “I trust you, just Help, please Lord.” And as I looked inward, to my heart and the knowing Father who dwells with me at the deepest level, I was flooded with peace of heart and mind. He poured out His peace and I was calm. I know it is supernatural when it is good and doesn’t make sense. Peace in the face of great uncertainty about my child’s health was not my natural response. It was supernatural. It was good.
God does not need my prayers. But through prayer, I am able to participate in the treasure that He desires to give me. I know He desires good for me. He has walked beside me for years and whispered in my heart, “I love you. I want what’s best for you and your children.” But above all I know that He desires peace and joy in my heart despite my circumstances. A sick child. The debilitating fear. How do I put one foot in front of the other? But slowly, as I have nothing but God, when I turn to Him in prayer He shows up and teaches me about love. There might always be a deeper sadness or a greater pain. Even death cannot snatch me or those He loves out of His hand. This life is fleeting, but in it, I know that He desires to heal and to save. Praying through is my only option; I know nothing else to do. And then healing comes. First peace, then joy, and then healing. My child is fine. The virus must run its course. And the Lord does the healing.
I love my son. I want what is best for him. I want health and abundance in life for him. But above all I want him to know that he is loved. My heavenly Father treats me that way. He’s given me that glimpse of his love for me, His child. It’s only a glimpse and not fully developed, as in a mirror or shadow. But my love for my child feels enormous, searing, painful at times. And I get a small taste of how my heavenly Father feels about me. Prayer is my opportunity to get to know my God. He desires my good, but more importantly He desires for me to know Him as He knows me. And He loves me.