As a mom it is very important to me to teach my children about God. I want my children to love God and His Word for themselves. To me this is success: that a person walks in God's unique plan for their lives; love the work that they do and lead a purposeful life with eternal meaning. There are things that we can do to help our children form a close relationship with God and not just live and be raised in a Christian home.
THE FIRST WAY TO HELP OUR CHILDREN DEVELOP INTO A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF AND YOUR CHILDREN. Children learn from their parents first what life is all about. They observe what their parents think about life and about what is important. Most of these opinions that children form about life is based on how their parents react in situations; their parents attitudes toward situations, rather than what their parents say. Children are much more intelligent than we make them out to be. They will even pretend to not "know" what you do wrong sometimes if they think it is necessary. So be honest about your own walk with God and about your own mistakes. Our own breakthrough and victory in any situation starts by humbling ourselves and by being honest. If we are not willing to be honest we are in pride and not even God can help us out of it- He needs our cooperation. To be willing to be honest about our own mistakes is the first step to start setting an example for your children to develop a close relationship with God. Not doing this will teach them how to live a fake Christian life- that is a form of religion but it is not to be a true child of God in action.That is the difference between a relationship with Jesus and to just be in a religion. To just be religious soothes our conscience falsely but it is not the same as to be in a loving honest relationship with Jesus. Honesty is the first step to start growing spiritually. And to lead our children into a close relationship with Jesus, really starts with ourselves. Our children will always be inspired by watching and observing our lives.
THE SECOND WAY TO HELP OUR CHILDREN INTO A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND PROCESS OF GROWING IN YOUR WALK WITH THE LORD. We don't have to be perfect, in fact we will never be perfect as humans! The goal should rather be to grow alongside our children and learn together. If I learn something new, I share it with them. I talk to them about it. This gets easier as they get older but it is also very important when they are younger. There is an old saying that says that our children will do what they see us doing, not what we tell them to do. None of us will ever be perfect and we should not be scared to talk to our children about our mistskes and what we learned from them. These will become their lessons too if we allow them to share in it. And it will help them grow up to be stronger and wiser than their peers. It will help them to reason and think things through with more wisdom. Also help them in the same way to learn from their own mistakes. If we learn from our mistakes, we changed them into opportunities to grow.
THIRD WAY TO HELP OUR CHILDREN INTO A CLOSER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: ALWAYS USE THE WORD AS A REFERENCE FOR THINKING AND REASONING ABOUT LIFE. This will only be possible if we have a Word foundation. The Word of God should be the authority in our lives. We should all as children of God made the decision that Jesus IS Lord of our lives. If we did, the Word should be the outhority by which we live. If the Word says something is wrong, we should not be doing it or have it in our lives. If this is not yet established in our lives, this is where we should start. When you've made this decision already, start by referring to the Word as the reason for your decisions and choices you make. This will teach your children that you live by the word, you are not just religiously talking but not doing it. Setting an honest example like this will lead our children closer to God. And again: if you make a mistake, talk about it, learn together from it. Use it to teach them about God's grace and the fact that it is not my finished work but Jesus's finished work on the cross that gives us true righteousness in Christ! We are here to point them to Christ and to follow Jesus's example more than our own.
FOURTH WAY TO HELP OUR CHILDREN INTO A CLOSER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: READ THE WORD DAILY WITH YOUR CHILDREN AND PRAY TOGETHER ABOUT EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING. There is no better way to help our children learn to know God, than to read God's Word and make time to talk about it. This should not be done in a schoolish strict and formal manner. To spend time with Jesus and His Word should look no different than when you and your children spent time together and you're just talking. It should be just as natural to be with God as it is to be with each other. God wants to be part of your REAL and HONEST daily life. He knows you already just the way you are! Learn to pray together and sing together and enjoy learning more about God and about Jesus who loves you very much! Praying is talking to God, it is building relationship with Him. It is not just talking, it is also listening- to be quiet enough to hear His voice and to always give Him a chance to talk back to us. We should do this as a family in our daily lives. God wants to be in on everything that happens in our lives. He loves us that much!
There is a lot more that can be said on this topic and I would like to write more about it in the future. I hope I've inspired you to share your relationship with God with your children for it is the most powerful way to disciple our children so that they would not just grow up in a religious house with a religion that they know nothing about and that they don't see working in your life. This is called borrowed faith and it is dangerous. Children that grow up in a house like this think that they are Christians because their parents claim that théy are, but they never made Jesus Lord of their own lives and nobody lived it for them in action so that they have evidence of it being true. It is so critically important to be a living true example to them of a normal human being that is on a journey to get to know Jesus. Please don't condemn yourself when you make mistakes.That is why Jesus paid the price for all our sins- because we will never be perfect! But in Him we are made perfect, not on our own. The goal is not to be perfect but to perfectly trust Jesus and His righteousness to develop us into His likeness. Make this a team effort for the whole family! Don't underestimate your children's ability to become true followers of God at a very young age, because you have inspired them to do it! The world needs Godly families that truly love God and His Word and this is a good starting place.