talking and walking

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 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. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

I think this is the biggest and best part of teaching our children about Jesus.  It's a big challenge to those of us who are parents of young children. As fun and important as ‘Bible times’ are, there is nothing like just getting in the groove of chatting naturally with our kids about Jesus. I think that’s a big step for most of us: we often find it hard to talk about Jesus with our close Christian friends and it can feel even more strange and peculiar talking to a 2 year old about God!

When Mikey first moved in, I didn't feel like a ‘natural’ mum – you know, one of those women who just know what to do with babies because they’ve just got the maternal knack. I had to learn how to talk to a baby and I felt a bit self-conscious doing baby-talk and singing nursery rhymes when other people were around! I soon learned though!!

It’s a bit like that with chatting to them about Jesus – it’s something we often need to consciously learn rather than being something that just comes naturally. BUT I think it’s an essential. It’s too easy to slip in to the mentality that says, “my kids learn about Jesus at Sunday club”, or, “reading a Bible story before bed is enough”. We don’t do that with any other part of their education, so why do it with the most important and thrilling part?

For example: we don’t expect our kids to learn numbers because we count to 10 once a day – no, we count the steps as we walk up stairs, we sing number songs, we tell them ‘one more’ go on the slide, we count mouthfuls of food and count as we play hide and seek.

Numbers are handy to know, but Jesus? Essential!!

What opportunities could you take over the next few days to talk to your kids about Jesus? I’ve started posting some ideas and examples of what our family does on this blog. Why not share your ideas and experience - we could all do with a good bit of encouragement in this area!

Alice xx