Teaching Your Children to be Christians
By Joyce Webb
2006
Outline
1. It’s Your Responsibility
2. Teach Them the Scriptures
3. Pray with Them
4. Help Them Memorize Bible Verses
5. Lead Them in Salvation
6. Teach Them How to Live as a Christian
1. It’s Your Responsibility
It is your responsibility to teach your children about God.
Some people feel that it is for the church to teach the children about God.
Your child’s salvation is so important that you want to make sure they have heard the truth and that they understood it.
Suppose you take your child to church, but the teachers there don’t really talk about salvation. Maybe they spend much time on art, coloring or play.
Maybe your child is more interested in talking and being with other children and does not really think about what the teacher is saying.
As a parent, you need to tell your child about God.
You are the most important person in your child’s life. What you tell them is what they will believe.
If they see that God is important to you, then they will think it is important to them.
2. Teach Them the Scriptures
1. God in heaven is the only true God.
Jeremiah 10:10-13 Jeremiah 23:23-24
2. The Bible is true and is to be believed. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
John 20:31
3. The Bible is written by many different men. God spoke to these men and helped them as they wrote about God and the things that happened to God’s people.
Many of the books of the Bible have the name of the person who wrote that book. Other books do not show who wrote the book. People who study history have learned who wrote these books. Some of the books we are not sure who wrote them.
4. The Bible tells us who God is and what God wants man to do to please Him.
Reading God’s word, will teach us:
To be saved to go to heaven
To live in a way pleasing to God
To learn that sin will be punished
To learn how God worked in the lives of people
To learn that God loves people
To learn that God will guide us and answer our prayers
5. Make sure your child knows that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Jesus is the only person who has the power to forgive our sins, because he is the one who paid the death punishment for us.
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God told them that because of their sin they would die forever in their spirits. They would also die in their bodies.
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God told them that because of their sin they would die forever in their spirits. They would also die in their bodies.
But God told them that he would send “someone” to crush Satan’s head. Satan is the one who tempted them and tricked them.
God had already planned to send his own Son to be born as a human, so he could die to pay the death punishment for Adam and Eve and all people.
Jesus would die instead of them. They would not have to die and pay their own penalty for death. Jesus would pay the punishment. If they believed in what Jesus did, and asked for forgiveness, they could receive the gift of life.
The gift of life is the life of the spirit. We still die in our bodies. But some day, God will give us a new body that will live forever. Then our new bodies and spirits will live forever with God.
We must believe Jesus died for us.
We can have peace that we are clean by Jesus and can go to heaven.
3. Pray with them
You need to pray with your child. Show them how to talk to God. Let them see you pray.
Show your child how to ask God to forgive them when they do wrong.
Show them how to ask God for the things they want.
Show them how to say thank you to God for their family, friends, food, homes, toys, etc.
4. Help your child memorize Bible verses.
Verses learned when they are young will stay with them for life.
Here are some scriptures for your children to memorize:
John 3:16 Romans 3:23 II Corinthians 5:17
John 3:36 Romans 6:23 II Corinthians 6:14
John 8:32 Romans 10:13 Galatians 5:16
Acts 4:12 Romans 14:11,12 Galatians 6:7,8,9
Ephesians 2:8,9 Philippians 1:6 Philippians 4:13
1 John 1:9 1 John 5:11,12,13 Philippians 4:19
Revelation 3:20 Numbers 32:23 Psalm 23
Matthew 6:9-13 Matthew 6:19-21 Matthew 6:33,34
5. Lead Them in Salvation
Make sure your child understands that he needs to believe in God. Make sure your child understands that he is a sinner and he needs to ask for forgiveness. All people have sinned and done wrong. We have gone our own way and not obeyed God. Isaiah 53:6
When children are very young, they can understand that when they disobey Mom and Dad that is wrong. You need to say to them, “You did not obey. That is wrong. God is not happy when we do not obey. You need to tell Mom you are sorry. You need to pray now to God and say you are sorry.”
Your young child is not a great sinner. And maybe what he did was not even a sin against God–except that disobedience is a sin.
Help your child see that disobeying in wrong. This will help him understand that he must answer to God for his actions. He will understand that God sees all he does. He will understand that he has a responsibility to God.
This understanding is the first step in a relationship to God.
As the child grows older, he will be doing things that really are a sin. He will understand that disobeying God is a sin and he will understand that he needs to ask God for forgiveness.
Little children, before they are old enough to truly understand wrong doing and forgiveness are in God’s hand. He does not judge them. He knows they are too young to understand.
But we teach them what wrong is. We do it a little at a time. And as they grow, they understand more and more. At some point, they will understand that they have sinned. And they will know that they need to ask for forgiveness.
6. Teach them how to live as a Christian.
Be a good example to them.
As a parent, are you obeying the teachings of the Bible?
Are you saved? Are you honest and truthful? What kind of words do you speak in your home?
When you sin do you ask for forgiveness? When you realize something is a sin, do you stop doing it and start obeying?
Your child needs to understand what Christian character is.
It is being honest and truthful. It is being kind. It is speaking good words. It is showing mercy and forgiveness to others. It is showing respect and speaking words of respect.
As grown-ups it is easy to tell child what they should do. But children really believe what they see the grown-ups do. So no matter what you say—they will watch what you do–and they will copy what you do.
Children will live just like you live. “Preaching” to them to do right will not do much if they see that you do not do it yourself.