Raise a Child to Know God!

Today the message is entitled “Raise a Child to Know God!”

I have read all kinds of books over the years about raising children. Especially when I was a single parent, as I wanted to be sure that my children had the best chance at growing up to be wise and loving. After all that reading, I still find the Bible to be the best source to use while being responsible for their little, growing minds and bodies.

God created us to love each other, correct each other, support one another and go through life together. He gave parents the responsibility of providing all the needs of their young children – body, mind, and soul. The most important lifeskill we provide to our children, is to know God.

When our children know God, and then they leave our daily lives to forge their own lives following God, they have the best start. Knowing God is the most important truth we can give our children.

Proverbs 22:6 NIV
“Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

I am certain that the word “old” is there because even back then, “teenagers” existed! A time of life where one breaks free from childhood and tries to find the path for themselves. It can be a rough path to follow and many wander away from God. We are told that the truth will lead them back to God later.

Now join me in looking at some Scriptures about raising our children. God has put many verses of instruction for us on child rearing. I am bringing forth a few today and encourage you to search out the rest. I want parents, single people and youth to read and learn, for you never know when you might be used by God to be a part of a child’s teaching.

Deuteronomy 4: 10 NIV
10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Webster’s Dictionary states: Revere – to regard with deep respect, love, etc.

Psalm 78: 3-7 NIV
3 What we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

Lessons we teach our children do go done through the generations. Think of your own family – what lessons did you have passed down from grand parents?

Deuteronomy 6: 4-7 NIV
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Teach life skills by daily example. It should be our way of life that children can see God in and hear about God from us.

Isa 38: 19 NIV
“The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.”

Joel 1:3 NIV Joel is telling the people of Israel of the coming locust plagues.
“Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.”

Why Children Love God
The minister asked a group of children in Sunday School class, “Why do you love God?” He got a variety of answers, but the one he liked best was from a boy who said, “I guess it just runs in our family.” (Nelson’s Book of Stories, Pg. 592)

Matthew 19: 13-14 NIV
13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

1Thessalonians 2: 11-13 NIV
11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,
12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

God knows that children learn fast and as I have always maintained, they are sponges, soaking up everything they see and hear. Therefore, we need to make sure that our lives show God to them in all aspects.

Mark 10: 13-16 NIV
The Little Children and Jesus

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.
14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

What a lesson for all of us! We try to make knowing God complicated and difficult. God is telling us that we need to come to Him as a child – simply, open and trusting, believing that God cares for you.

We are to raise children to know God. We are to do that daily at home, in fellowship at church, in Sunday School and other activities, and in those “teachable moments”.

For the children to believe us, we have to be walking and talking in the truth of God, by having our own relationship with God that shines through us to the children.

Remember, you were once a child!