In Episode 003 of Playfully Faith Parenting, I share 10 tips to quickly and easily add Jesus and play into your day with kids.
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Show Notes
Episode Summary:
In Episode 003 we discuss 10 tips for introducing your kids to Jesus. Ultimately, it is not our responsibility whether our children choose to follow Christ or not; it is theirs. Even if we do everything right, which we won’t, our kids may choose their own path or take a few detours. Your job is to teach them well, pray for them often, and then, trust God with the rest.
Here are a few tips to help you teach your kids about Christ:
- Keep age-appropriate Bibles and Bible Storybooks around your house. And, read them playfully!
- Pray with your child each night, big bold prayers and tiny little prayers!
- Learn fun blessings to use at mealtimes.
- Apologize to your kids when you make mistakes or lose your cool.
- Talk about God as Creator when you are outside in nature.
- Sing Sunday School songs from your childhood, if you know any.
- Listen to praise music together.
- Tell your kids what a great job God did when He made them! “Wow, I love how silly God made you!”
- Teach in your child’s Sunday School class.
- Have other Christian adults regularly in your child’s life.
BONUS TIP!!
11. Keep faith fun! Laugh, sing, play, and celebrate every day!
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Transcript
Here is a rough transcript with timestamps of Playfully Faithful Parenting Episode 003: 10 Tips to Introduce Your Kids to Jesus. This isn’t meant to be pretty and perfect but is here as a resource for those who want it.
00:00:00
Hey Mammas, welcome back to episode 3. I’m so excited this week to give you 10 tips for introducing your kids to Jesus.
00:00:08
Last week we talked about the first step to spiritual parenting is having your own authentic growing relationship with Jesus by spending time with him and knowing how loved.
00:00:20
You are just for being you today. I’m going to give you 10 really practical little ideas of ways you can incorporate Jesus into your daily life with kids. But before we get to those.
00:00:36
10 tips I want to remind you that no matter what you do as a Christian Mama, you cannot make your kids fall in love with Jesus. We can introduce him. We can paint a beautiful picture and model a vibrant growing life with him.
00:00:56
And all the abundance and joy and even pain that comes with that. But we cannot make our kids choose to follow Christ. That is their choice. You could do everything right, even though we probably won’t but you.
00:01:12
Hood and your kids may still choose to make their own path, or even just take a few detours. Your job is to teach them well.
00:01:21
Pray for them often and then trust God with the rest. So let’s move on and talk about what are some tips to setting your kids up to choose?
00:01:32
To follow Christ tip number one keep age appropriate Bibles and Bible story books all around your house.
00:01:39
And read them playfully and often. What I mean by reading them playfully is they’re not dead words on a page, even if they are storybooks, I still believe that it is God’s heart. There it is still portraying the character of God.
00:01:58
Who he is what he has done? What he can do and what he wants to do in those storybooks and so read them as if they are alive and exciting and engaging and your kids will learn to fall in love with those Bibles Bible story books.
00:02:15
And Bibles do not have to be read at the same time every day. We read ours every night, but we also have them around the house in the playroom and the family room and bedrooms and our kids just pick them up and they will ask to read them at different times. So fine story books.
00:02:35
And Bibles that you love and that your kids.
00:02:38
Love and use them just throughout the day. Second, pray with your child each night. It may be at dinner and it may be when you’re putting them into bed, but pray big. Bold prayers. Let your kids see that we can ask God for extraordinary things.
00:02:58
But also pray for the little thing if your kids Bunny is missing, that’s a big deal at our house.
00:03:06
We pray for Bunny to be found or your kid has a Boo Boo. Pray for the Boo Boo. But pray with your child each day and each night.
00:03:15
Big, bold prayers and tiny little prayers to tip #3. Learn some fun blessings to use at mealtimes.
00:03:24
Kids love this. We have some that are song.
00:03:29
And some that are just kind of recited prayers. But I have a list of we have a packet of 17 different prayers.
00:03:37
You can get them on my website at created to play.com/kids dash blessings, and that’s a free download of 17 different prayers.
00:03:49
It includes classics like Johnny Appleseed and also the doxology. But brand new prayer that I wrote the based on the song Baby Shark and our kids love that one.
00:04:02
And then there are all sorts in between of classics that you may have even sung when you were a kid. So those are a lot of fun.
00:04:09
To include at dinner and invites your kids to participate in the insane grace before meals. And we let our kids take turns each night of who gets to pick which prayer we’re going to say our next.
00:04:26
Tip is to apologize to your kids when you make mistakes or lose your cool. We all do it well.
00:04:34
Probably most of us do it anyhow. I know I do it. I make mistakes. And I lose my cool on my kids, and by apologizing to them, I can show them that I need Jesus.
00:04:47
I need his grace and his forgiveness and that he died on the cross for my sins and that he is still working on me and that gives so much freedom to your kids to know that you make mistakes and you’re willing to admit to your mistakes.
00:05:06
And that Jesus is still working and growing you. So apologize to your kids and fill that apology with Jesus and His grace and his work on the cross. Tip #5 talk about God as creator when you are outside in nature, nature is such.
00:05:25
A wonderful and easy testament of.
00:05:29
God and his creativity and his goodness take advantage of it. Talk about the colors. Talk about the sounds, talk about the smells.
00:05:38
You could talk about the tastes in certain plants and just talk about the beauty that God has created for us to enjoy what things in nature.
00:05:49
Make you laugh and there are certain animals that we see at the zoo.
00:05:53
Do that, they’re just silly and dumb, but you can invite kids to look for God and his creativity and the way that he created things just simply for us to enjoy that have no other function other than that. And so that’s really beautiful.
00:06:14
And a super easy way to remind kids about who God is and that he is still at work in the world.
00:06:21
#6 sing some nice cool songs from your childhood. If you don’t know any, they are on Amazon Music.
00:06:29
Or Spotify Pandora? All of those you can find Sunday school songs, they’re all over the place online and your kids will love them. Kids 40 years ago loved them kids today still love love them. My kids love Father Abraham and the Lord’s Army especially.
00:06:50
But there’s so many of them. Definitely recommend singing those little truths and planting that into your kids hearts along with singing.
00:06:59
Listen to praise music together. This is not kids music, but to praise music that speaks to your heart and your kids will learn that and fall in love.
00:07:09
With that too, I think it’s important to have a balance in your families worship life of adult praise, worship, music and age appropriate kids. Sunday School type songs that balance will really help your kids to come into faith and find.
00:07:29
That are fun and playful and age appropriate, but also can provide them opportunities to go a little bit deeper in worship.
00:07:37
I would not recommend one or the other. I think you need both and I think they’re both important and both important to you. As a Mama. I know for me when I am struggling.
00:07:49
Often my girls will hear me say Mama needs some Jesus music and I put on praise and it can just really change the whole atmosphere so.
00:08:00
That’s tip #7 #8. This is one of my favorites. I love to do this one with my kids.
00:08:07
Tell your kids what a great job God did when he made them. Say things like wow. I love how silly God made you. Wow, God really did a beautiful job with your eyes.
00:08:21
Just be in awe.
00:08:23
Of God for what he has done through your kids. Talk about you could talk about their physical attributes. You could talk about their personalities.
00:08:32
You could talk about their emotions. You can talk about anything that is specific to them and that connects their identity to being purposeful.
00:08:43
Through God’s creation of them it it will. You’ll see a little spark in your kids I think, and it’s just it’s really fun to be reminded that.
00:08:55
All of those beautiful things, messy things, quirky things in our kids we’ve put there with intention by our Creator, and I just I love that one.
00:09:06
It was that one so fun tip #9. Teach in your child’s Sunday school class. So this one I think.
00:09:16
Be really intimidating to parents. We feel like we may not even know how to teach our own kids about God and the Bible. How can we teach other people kids?
00:09:25
But churches offer their volunteers some really great resources and training most often, and it can be a really beautiful way for you to participate in that time with your kids and for you to grow as well. You’ll learn alongside your kids.
00:09:46
And get to know other kids and families OTR.
00:09:50
Church and your Sunday school directors will love you for this one and it doesn’t need to be all the time.
00:09:57
I because I think having your own time at church is really important. But teaching in your child Sunday school class has so many wonderful benefits, so I.
00:10:10
I highly recommend recommend that finally this one.
00:10:14
Is really important. Have other Christian adults regularly in your child’s life. Many years ago, when I was at for Theological Seminary.
00:10:25
I had a professor chap Clark and he talked about teens who go on to have a faith and continue to attend.
00:10:35
In college and in adulthood, have five strong Christians in their life on a consistent basis, so that’s hopefully two parents, maybe grandparents.
00:10:47
It could be a youth leader. It can be parents or of their friends. It could be your friends. It could be people from your life.
00:10:56
Group or small group. All of these people can model Christ in your kids and what an authentic faith looks like and the body.
00:11:05
We have Christ and they can be praying for your child and your child faith. All of those things are so important, so I highly recommend having other Christian adults in your kids life.
00:11:17
And here’s a fun little bonus tip. Keep faith fun. Jesus said he came to bring abundant life in in John 1010.
00:11:26
And so we need to laugh, play, sing and celebrate every day. Who God is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he wants to do.
00:11:36
And making it fun for your kids will be so much more inviting. A stuffy or forced faith routine, so keep it.
00:11:46
Fun, keep it playful and mom’s keep it about relationships. Your relationship with your kids, your relationship with Jesus and their relationship with Jesus.
00:11:57
Again, all you can do is your best and you have to trust God with the rest. So Mama I’m praying for you this week. You can do this.
