Last night, I was rummaging through my night stand looking for my passport. Buried at the bottom of the drawer in a bag with some childhood photos, I found a little booklet called “The Way”. Immediately, I opened the booklet and my mind travelled back to my childhood. The booklet was given to me when I received Jesus Christ as my savior. I sat down on my bed, began thumbing through the booklet and my mind travelled back to that day. I still remember. I was only 3 and a half years old. The teacher taught a lesson about Jesus being the Good Shepherd who looks for every lost sheep. He came because He loved me and He died on the cross to take the punishment for my sin. Jesus wanted me to receive His gift of eternal life. All I needed to do was say I was sorry for the naughty things I had done and ask Him into my heart. I remember praying, “Jesus, I am so sorry for the naughty things I’ve done. I want you to be my forever Shepherd. Would you come into my heart and stay with me forever? I want to live with you someday in heaven.”
Did I understand all the theological implications of my prayer? Nope. Did I understand all the theological implications of Jesus being fully God and fully man? Nope. Did I question that decision at different points in my life? Yup. But, Jesus heard my prayer. He came into my heart that day and became my very best friend. As a small child, I remember talking with Jesus all the time. I believed with all my heart that He truly lived in me and I began to trust Him.
The Christmas season is a wonderful time to introduce your child to Jesus. Many parents worry about saying the wrong thing. I would suggest that you give that worry to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” (Mark 10:14.) Jesus invites us as parents to introduce our children to Him. He is fully aware that your child won’t understand every part of His nature. That’s okay. Don’t make it too complicated. Jesus is perfectly capable of revealing Himself to your child in ways that you can’t even imagine. I know – because He did it in my life! So here are a few suggestions for how to start the conversation:
Tell your child that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. It is a celebration of when Jesus – God’s Son became a baby and came to earth.(There are some great video clips on U-Tube that illustrate this. Hillsong has some great U-Tube clips that can be used as conversation starters.)
God loves your child so much that He wanted to give them a special gift – so He sent Jesus.(John 3:16)
We can’t see Jesus but He is always with us and we can talk with Him any time. (Hebrews 13:5)
All of us do naughty things. God loves us anyway and sent Jesus to take the discipline. (He grew up and died on a cross)
He wants to be our forever friend. (Romans 1:6)
We just tell Jesus we want to receive His gift. (John 1:12)
We can talk with Jesus any time. (Hebrews 13;5)
When your child makes a decision to follow Christ, write down the date and celebrate. While I celebrated with each of my children when they accepted Christ, I wish I had written down the date and given them a gift to remember. (Learn from my mistake!)
The verses I’ve listed are more for your benefit as a parent. But, begin early (pre-school age) teaching your child to memorize parts of scripture verses. That’s probably another blog post – so we’ll continue the conversation. But – leave a comment or a question. I’d love to hear from you. I’ll choose one winner and you’ll win an Amazon gift card so that you can order resources to help you encourage your child’s faith walk! But – you must leave a comment!~
3 Responses
Holli
Thank you so much for the ideas of keeping it simple. My stepson is 9 and I am not around him all the time. I thought about giving him a more “grown up” Bible for Christmas this year and writing a note that I hope one day as he grows up he realizes this is the best gift he will ever receive. Have a Merry Christmas!!
Kristin
Thanks for such great encouragement, Becky. The great thing about introducing our kids to Christ is that it’s a never ending discussion. Each day as we grow and learn more about how amazing God is as parents, we continue the discussion with our kids. My prayer is that my ceiling can be their floor. The amazing thing is that I often feel like I learn more from them than they learn from me, with their pure hearts and true childlike faith. What an exciting journey!
Kari
Two years ago, my husband and I were both laid off. With him home at bedtime now, he was available to be part of our bedtime prayer routine. I think it was our son who one night said, “let’s ask Daddy to come pray with us.” Of course! My husband was employed again but in a job that has him home most nights before bedtime and in time for family prayer. All that to say, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart to pray outloud for my children to hear, “Dear God, help S & B come to know you. Help them to reach out to you and accept your gift of salvation.” Subsequent thoughts have been about praying other spiritual hopes outloud for them. I pray these things in my quiet time but they need to hear that mommy thinks these things are important enough to talk to God about them.
Anyway, a long story with perhaps excess details beyond the point, but thanks for being a place to share it. There are so many simple ways we can naturally show Jesus to our kids. Reading a Bible verse at breakfast, speaking a blessing over them before school, praying together about a challenge, praising together over a joy: all these things introduce our kids to Christ I think.