From A Child’s Point of View
[By Caroline Piner]

This year’s focus is a return to the basics of what we believe and our foundations. As a parent and a Bible class teacher, I can’t help but think of what teaching the Bible to a child looks like. We help them to understand everything in God’s word, from the order of the books of the Bible to what each of those books say to how they should shape our lives. This process is exciting and fun, teaching songs to little babies and hearing them say “God” for the first time and seeing older children make connections from one story to another. The more I teach, the more I realize just how important these classes and teachings are to their futures and to their spiritual growth.

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Many times, Christians focus on the lost souls we see out in the world (and rightfully so), but we forget that the children we are teaching need the gospel just as much. The things we teach in our homes and in children’s classes (like love, who God is, how to treat others, etc.) are the very things we strive to teach an adult we may be studying with. Even the way we teach these concepts are similar at times, starting from a basic understanding, using memory devices, and then adding more depth as they understand more. Luke 18:16-17 talks about how Jesus wanted to have the children around him to teach those who were watching because their souls were just as important. He even says that we must receive the kingdom like a child to be able to enter it. There may be lots of reasons that he said this. Children are completely dependent on their parents for their every need and they trust their parents completely to fulfill those needs. There’s a lot we can learn from that perspective. We need to be completely dependent on God for our needs and have complete trust that he will fulfill those needs.

When we teach our children, they sit there and soak up everything they can learn and they learn even when we are not actively teaching. Teaching children about the Bible and about God cannot just come from a couple of Bible classes a week, but every day, even when we are not actively sitting down with them, talking about the Bible. Our actions and our lives must look like we are imitating Jesus. This goes for being around people out in the world too. We cannot just be Christians at church services and then not think about whose image we are bearing during the rest of the week. Children are always learning from our examples, always watching what we do, how we react to things, how we interact with people, and so on. This, of course, extends to diligently teaching what God says to our children (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).

Where do we start? I don’t have the perfect answer for that. When I teach Ezra, I’m singing songs like “Who wrote the Bible?”, “Read your Bible, pray everyday”, “Jesus loves me”, songs about creation and animals, different people in the Bible, the books of the Bible, etc. We also read his Bible to him so he will start to get to know who is in the Bible and how all those stories about real people point to Jesus and how God controls everything. In the older children’s classes, we talk about similar things, just on a slightly deeper level. They have heard many of the stories so far, and many are still brand new, but I teach new concepts in those stories and they are able to ask questions about things they don’t understand yet. The wonder they have while learning these stories brings such joy and it is a privilege for me to be able to teach them. While there are many ways to go about teaching the Bible to new learners, the best way to start is with God and to just start. Again, children learn by example, and that includes our example of teaching them about the Bible. While not every child taught about God will grow up to make the choice to continue to follow him, we would miss vital opportunities to plant seeds in these souls if we didn’t try to teach them at all. Your children need the Bible just like everyone else, so just teach.