Top 3 Conversations To Have with Kids About Faith by Age
Conversations, Part 4 of 5
When I was old enough to get my license, I took driver’s ed with my high school and then again with an academy. I failed the driver’s test, not once, but twice. My dear old dad decided it was his turn to take a stab at teaching me to drive, so we took his trusty old white bullet-shaped Chevy Lumina. He printed 6 signs of “student driver” and taped it to all sides of the mini-van. A mortified me got in the front seat and managed to get into an accident with a parked car. As soon as my son was tall enough to sit in the front seat, I started to give him lessons about road safety and driving. I don’t do it all the time and it just happened naturally because he’s such an inquisitive kid. It occurred to me, why wait to teach him everything all at once when I could teach it to him with real time examples as they occur. While I didn’t begin to teach driving to my son intentionally, it became a very intentional thing. Like how to merge onto a highway safely or change lanes. To watch out for your blind spots and so on… Intentionality is a word that I revisit again and again as I think of my children’s faith and the faith of all the children we serve at my church. It involves a pursuit of creating space for deliberate and purposive moments to chat with the kids. And so I’d like to suggest some important topics of conversations I think parents and Sunday School teachers should be having with kids.
Toddler to PreK
God as creator. At the very beginning, this is such a wonderful place to start with our littles. To tell them again and again that God had created them in love and He had given Adam and Eve all they needed. How he created the world and all that is in it leads to so many wonderful lessons of science and nature and gives them a hands on experience.
Activities: Plant a seed, water, and watch it grow. Get caterpillars and watch them grow together into butterflies. Measure your child’s growth and say a prayer of thanks for the way God has created him/her. My favorite is using the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. It’s so beautifully written in a language that little ones will love and understand.
God as Trinity. This one is such a difficult conversation, but one best if started earlier so they have time to know, process, question, and grow into faith with. I’ve also seen many bad representations of the Trinity and I’ve learned so much myself as I’ve sought to teach it to children. The best teaching of the Trinity I’ve come across is from Fred Sanders. I love this simple lesson of what Sanders taught the kids about Trinity at his church:
Now try this: here’s a group of three people [pick out three kids]. But they’re not one being. They’re three people who are three beings. They’re a group, and they can cooperate or play together, but they’re never one being. You can replace one of them and still have a group.
So God is more 3 than just what I am, and more 1 than what this group is. God is just more! Thinking about one person kind of helps us; and thinking about a group kind of helps us; but we always know that God is more, more, more.
Here’s the great part: It means that there is more to God than we can ever fully understand, because nothing else is like God. One way to praise God is to ask, “Who is like you, O God?” and to answer, “nothing!”
We can think of other things that are a little bit like the Trinity. Maybe you’ve heard some of them: One egg has a shell, an egg white, and a yolk. Or one apple has a skin, the fruit, and the core. But God doesn’t come in parts like that: God is way more.
Some people enjoy thinking up these things that are a little like the Trinity, but then they admit they’re not much like the Trinity. You know what I enjoy? That last part: admitting that God is more!
When you admit that the Trinity is more than just like me, or more than just like a group, you’re praising God by giving those ideas up to him and admitting, “God, you are greater and more than anything I can imagine.”
…Here’s one more way the Trinity is more than you can imagine. We know God the Father sent God the Son to save us, and that God the Holy Spirit lives in us when we believe. That means God is above us, with us, and in us. The Trinity has us surrounded!
That’s some of what it means when we say this concept together, “God eternally exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” I can’t stop thinking about how great the Trinity is.
God as a covenant maker and keeper. It never occurred to me to teach very young children about the covenant until I came across the Lead Me to Zion curriculum by Heather Molendyk. In 40 lessons, the children are introduced to covenant theology. The description of the curriculum summarizes it best: “…covenant theology is knowing the powerful love which binds us forever to our Creator and that through Jesus Christ every promise of God is fulfilled.” What a wonderful framework in teaching children a bunch of God’s character traits: faithful, holy, worthy, trustworthy, loving, gracious, omnipotent, omniscient, etc.
Surely, our children’s faith is more important than driving or any other lessons we can teach our children. It is the most important in that it encompasses all other lessons our children will learn. The beautiful thing about these conversations is that they can happen anywhere anytime as we raise our children, organically and as we live life. The intentional part comes in that we are alert and ready to give reference to God about these important topics whenever the opportunity arises. We can also specifically choose a time during the day to have these faith conversations. Morning time or bedtime are wonderful choices!
In defense of myself, I am a very safe and good driver now. I hope my children will be also as I give them these mini-driving lessons as we drive around. But more so, I hope that all these conversations we have about the Gospel and faith will answer the “so whats” we talked about two weeks ago. Praying that God continues to work in their hearts and all our children’s hearts. I can’t wait to see what God does in this next generation!
Next week, I will share more suggested topics along with resources and activities for K to 2nd and 3rd to 5th grade. What other important faith conversations have come up between you and your little ones?
Until next time, I save a seat for you at the table.