Pastor and author John Piper has said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
The only way to glorify God and be satisfied in this life is to be His disciple. Discipleship is therefore God’s gift to us, not our burden. Through this process, God transforms us from within so that we are content in Him alone, all to His glory. This is the purpose for which we were created. Consequently, glorifying God is central in the everyday discipleship of our children.
The following are ways we can help our children know God:
- Read Scripture with our children.
We want our children to be exposed to truth every day, regardless of their ability to articulate it back to us. When my daughters were very young, we read The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Gospel Story Bible. Now that they are older, we read brief Bible passages during dinner. We have to eat, so we use that time to be in the Word with them. - Pray with a kingdom mindset.
We encourage our children to talk to God often and about anything, but we have a kingdom focus when we pray with them. We desire for them to understand that God is the Hero of the story and the Rescuer of His people. We want our children to learn to pray in a way that mirrors God’s desires, instead of focusing mainly on their own. - Encourage our children to share the gospel.
My oldest makes friends wherever she goes. Because of her friendly demeanor, we encourage her to share what she knows about Jesus with others. She understands that it is her role to share the gospel, but it is God’s job to save. We remind her to be winsome, not argumentative, with unbelievers. - Engage in conversations with a Christian worldview.
Intentional conversations give us the opportunity to speak truth to our children, as we discuss everything from why God made something the way that He did to why we should love difficult people. Paying attention to our kids during these conversations allows us to train them to have a Christian worldview. - Memorize Scripture.
Songs for Saplings uses Scripture verses set to catchy tunes to fill children’s minds with doctrinal truths. We always have the car radio on, so we use it for Scripture memorization rather than mindless entertainment. - Address sin when we see it.
How will our children know they are sinners in need of a Rescuer unless we confront their sin as it occurs? We don’t do this to condemn them, but to point them to Christ. As parents, we try to be transparent about our own sin and ask for forgiveness when our sin has been directed toward our children. We want them to understand that we sin just like they do and need Jesus to rescue us too.
