Spiritual Teaching of Children

[SoapLady]

I was raised in a "Christian" home (in name more than deed) but we never talked about God. I struggle with how to teach ds about God and foster his relationship with Him. A close friend uses Heritage Builders materials for a weekly family night of activities centered around teaching her pre-schoolers about God. She loves it! http://www.heritagebuilders.com/Heri...%20Family.html Has anyone else used their materials? What are your thoughts? What other suggestions do you have for someone like me?

[jen1981]

In our home we don't really have "formal" bible studies. Our kids are 4,2 and 5 mo. What I try to do is bring the Lord into everything we do or see. For instance if ds hits dd, he gets in trouble and i tell him he needs to say sorry to dd. I also tell him he needs to say sorry to the Lord Jesus, because it makes him sad when we are mean. (Both ds & dd have asked the Lord Jesus into their hearts.) If we are outside I'll tell them :see what a beautiful day the Lord Jesus has made for us or see the pretty leaves He created." We also read Bible stories together and pray before bedtime. I believe that it is a natural part of life to introduce the Lord without it being something the kids dread"long Bible studies, etc." It gets them in the habit of realizing that all we have comes from the Lord and we should thank him for it. I'm not bashing Bible studies, however I do think they need to be age appropriate in content and length. I knew a family once that eveery night after supper they would have an hour long Bible reading, nothing but reading directly from the Bible and then the dad would make comments on what they read. The kids had no input and a lot of it wasn''t things they could even understand. I think it can turn kids away from having their own readins because the Bible gets peceived as a "boring" book. Sorry this is so long!

[Rach]

we use teachable moments, regular prayer, Christian songs, and whatever materials they got in Sunday School/VBS (reinforce and sometimes expand).

[GenLovesDen4ever]

We use teachable moments too but recently i have made a concerted effort to read bible stories to them at least once a day. We are going thru the OT thru to the new with some stories Jesus told thrown in. They sometimes moan and winge when I start but as I read the story they all end up gripped. I see this as something to build upon thru the years. My girl are 7 and my son is 5, Its usually him who doesnt like to sit and listen. I also pray aloud during situations and for little things and that is always wonderful because they can see God working before thier very eyes in really tangeable ways. Once we were passing out birthday cards to their old school friends (they left school in april to homeschool). I didnt know exactly where one little girl lived (we also had a nonbelieving friend of theirs with us walking around with these invites). I prayed with Sophie that the Lord would direct us to this girl's house. It was pouring with rain and we were all soaked but we had to get these invites out. We turned down the street we thought she lived on after praying and her dad walked out of her house. The Lord directed us and it was a teachable moment on how wonderful God is to listen to our simple prayer requests. Sophie now prays for things like lost socks or shoes and ALWAYS finds them. Bless her little heart! We talk about Jesus as if him being a part of our life is just a matter of fact.

I havent checked out the website you listed but I will when I get a chance.