Some thoughts on evangelizing your children.

Today was kind of a long day. There are certain patterns that I notice with my children that when broken, bring predictable results. One of those patterns is what happens when we miss the first service at church and go to the later service. Our kids are just more wound up a later time in the afternoon and therefore less likely to take their naps. They’ve never been one to get cranky and just crash like some kids. They get more wound up and have a harder time winding down. We give them an extra measure of grace for their physical weakness, but when they miss their naps (or I should say, when my daughter misses HER nap) the pattern continues through the rest of the day.

All of that is to say that my daughter went to bed early this evening. despite multiple attempts to help her reel herself in, she just needed to go down early. She is nearly four, and very verbal. I’d say she can take in more that most other kids her age. The fact that she was going down early for disobedience was a good stage for talking about the gospel.

It really surprises me how much she grasps. Lately she has been asking a lot of questions about Hell, often without prompting and usually during quiet times when discipline is not in play. The other day she made the remark, “Daddy, in Hell there is no ‘handle’ to turn on the light is there?” She also asked :Are there monsters in Hell?” My wife and I had been trying to de-program her since I’d made the mistake of letting our kids watch the beginning of Monster’s Inc. In this case I had to confess that monsters exist, and they are called demons, and that we can’t see them. That was a step backwards!

What really struck me tonight was how much she grasps about penal substitution. She definitely understands that God is angry at sin because He is holy, and that sinners cannot enter heaven. She also gets that the only way to be admitted to heaven is but having God put the consequences for her sin on Jesus, and that on the cross He bears the sins of those who repent.

What she doesn’t really get is repentance. I’ve instructed her that to have our sins pt on Jesus you have to say “I repent. I will not sin anymore.” I’ve also modeled my own repentance saying “I don’t want my sin anymore” and so on. She has even said ‘I repent.”, but does not understand the implications.

Out of this evening I am seeing that her need is to understand the lasting implications of repentance; that it’s not a magical incantation, it is a commitment and a change of mind, a change of heart. To understand repentance, I think she must understand the biggest obstacle to repentance: sin nature. Right now she definitely understands sin, but doesn’t grasp her nature as a sinner.

I have to say, too, that at times like this it is never sweeter to quote passages like these:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

A verse like this has so much familiarity that it becomes stale to us. When quoting it to a child, it takes on a freshness because you are struck by how it must sound to them; it is brand new. I am struck by the power of quoting simple Scriptures like Romans 5:8 “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I hope that all of you Christian parents out there are laboring to see your children complete in Christ (Col 1:28). It impresses me at what a lifelong task this is, and how many building blocks are laid as children grow into their understanding of the world. I eagerly await the opportunity to talk with my child about the gospel again. My son, who is 2 1/2 is getting his Bible ABC’s down right now, but my daughter is asking questions daily, and our after-dinner Bible studies are growing in their fruitfulness. I can only (only!) pray that this fruitfulness will yield eternal life!