5 Ways To Connect With Your Kids About God
Today I am excited to introduce you to Lisa from Thank Goodness It’s Recess. She is sharing some really valuable encouragement on connecting with your kids about God.
If you are looking for tips on how to connect with your kids about God, then you have come to the right place!
As Christian parents, we want to be able to connect with our kids on spiritual matters like prayer, Bible reading, and who God is. It’s so important!
We can agree on the importance, but it still may seem overwhelming at times.
How do I get my kids excited to learn about God, to listen to Scripture, or to pray out loud?
Great question!
I’ve put together a list of 5 ways to connect with your kids about God.
I hope that as you go through this list you will walk away with some great tips and ideas, and feel more confident about pointing your kids to God on a daily basis.
It’s not as hard as you think Mama. You can do this!
I’ll give you the list first, then take some time to go into more detail about each item!
5 Ways To Connect With Your Kids About God
- Daily Conversations
- Pray With Your Kids
- Model It
- Family Devotions
- Memorize Scripture
Let’s learn and grow together!
Daily Conversations
One of the best ways to connect with your kids about God is to talk to them and ask good questions.
Think about it: how do you get to know someone really well? You spend time talking, sharing, asking questions, and hanging out.
The same is true for your kids.
These kinds of conversations can happen all throughout the day, but if you need examples of specific moments, I’ll give you some!
Here are some great examples of times to engage in spiritual conversations with your kids:
- Carpool line
- Meal times
- Before bed
- One-on-one times
- Meal prep (if your child is helping you)
- Running errands
- Waiting room at appointments
- Vacations
- Anytime in the car
Look at all these opportunities to engage with your kids and connect with their hearts!
I’m comfortable talking with my children, but how do I get to the spiritual level? What are good questions to ask so I can get a better idea of what they’re thinking and feeling regarding the Lord?
Awesome questions!
Here are some great questions to ask your kids:
- Do you enjoy going to Sunday School? What have you been learning?
- Is there anything that’s worrying you that we could pray about?
- Do you believe that God loves you and cares about you?
- God made the trees, and everything in nature. Did you know that He made you too? (great for a young child)
- What is your favorite story in the Bible? (If they answer, share one of yours too!)
- God loves it when we come to Him with our struggles, worries, and praises. Would you like to pray with me right now about anything?
- Are there things in the Bible that you don’t understand that you’d like to learn more about?
- How have you seen God’s faithfulness in your life? (for an older child)
- What is one thing we can thank God for? (for any age child)
These conversations and questions aren’t anything you need to script out. Don’t stress about this stuff, just let your conversations flow naturally.
Stand back and be amazed at how the Spirit moves in your heart and in your child’s as well.
Taking the time to have intentional conversations about God with your kids is an investment you will never regret!
Pray With Your Kids
Another great way to connect with your kids about God is to pray with them.
Praying with your kids is an opportunity for you to hear what they’re thinking, feeling, and wondering.
I know that prayer can be intimidating for parents at times, especially if you didn’t grow up praying out loud in your family. That’s totally understandable!
Don’t let fear or insecurities keep you from engaging in such a wonderful spiritual discipline with your kids!
I’ll help you out and give you some real life examples that occur frequently with my 6 year-old daughter.
Addie: “Mommy, could you please pray for my ouchy to feel better? It really hurts.”
Me: “Let’s pray about it right now. Dear Jesus, we thank you for hearing our prayers and for caring about us. Please help Addie’s ouchy to feel better and help her to remember to always trust in You no matter what. Amen.”
Me: “Addie, could you please pray for Daddy’s back to feel better? It’s been hurting him lately.”
Addie: “Mommy, can you pray for him instead?”
Me: “Nope. This time I’d like you to pray and talk to God. He loves to hear your prayers.”
Addie: “Dear Jesus, please help Daddy’s back to feel better and to get stronger. We love you Jesus. Amen.”
Me: “Thank you for praying for Daddy. That’s a very kind thing to do for him.”
Those are just a couple of examples with Addie.
What my husband Jesh and I have really loved about praying with Addie is seeing how much she’s grown in her relationship with the Lord.
She is learning to go to God with her worries and fears, and oftentimes her first instinct is to stop and pray about it. As a parent, that makes my heart soar!
There was actually a time when I was struggling with something and talking about my fears and Addie stopped me and said, “Mommy, if you’re worried about it you should p-r-a-y about it.” Zing!
I was so struck by the truth in her comment and felt like it came straight from the Holy Spirit. Talk about being convicted!
I highly recommend praying with your kids as a way to connect with them about God.
Related Post: 5 Beautiful Things To Pray For Your Kids
Model It
What do you mean by modeling it? What exactly am I supposed to be modeling to my kids?
Great questions!
When I say model it, I mean to model a love for the Lord and spiritual things to your kids.
As parents, our kids are always watching us, taking in everything from what we watch on TV, to the things that we say and do, even our texts and phone conversations. Little eyes and ears are constantly observing and taking notes.
I have a couple of questions for you to think about:
- How do you expect your kids to be excited about the Lord if you and your spouse aren’t excited?
- If spiritual conversations and the Bible are only ever talked about on Sunday at church, do you think your kids will see the value of faith at home?
When I was growing up, church was kind of a Sunday thing. We would talk about the sermons on occasion in the car ride home, but it wasn’t free flowing in our household.
Faith seemed to be more of an individual and personal concept, not something we engaged in as a family outside of praying before meals.
In conversations with other friends my age, this seems to be a common trend with their upbringing as well.
It’s made me realize that if you desire for Jesus to be the foundation of your family, you have to work towards that. And it’s definitely hard work!
Start by modeling a love for Jesus, the Bible, community, and prayer to your kids. Let them see in your life how much Christ means to you! (I John 3:18)
Hopefully your love for the Lord will trickle down to your kids and get them excited about God too!
Here are some great questions to get you thinking about modeling a love for the Lord to your kids:
- Am I talking about my love for the Lord with my kids?
- Do my children ever see me reading my Bible?
- What do my conversations say about my love for the Lord? Am I talking about all secular things, or spiritual things too?
- Does my speech reflect a love for God and others?
- Am I excited to have family devotions or do I always make excuses?
- Are my kids seeing an excitement about church on Sundays or a lazy attitude?
This is a great way to do a heart check on yourself and make sure your own attitude about spiritual matters honors God.
For Jesh and I, we want Addie to know that more than a college degree, a good job, a godly marriage or success in life, the greatest hope in this world is found in Jesus and Him alone.
In order for her to know that, we have to model that love for her on a daily basis.
Model a love for the Lord to your kids, and watch the little gears in their hearts and minds start making spiritual connections!
Family Devotions
Family devotions are a wonderful way to connect with your kids about God!
If they are not something that you grew up doing, no worries.
Let me take the stress out of your mind and heart right now by saying that this is easier than you think.
Family devotions do not have to be fancy or formal.
They are a chance to sit down as a family, take a break from your busy day, and connect with each other and the Lord.
They can be as long or as short as you want. If you have really young children, they will more than likely be on the shorter end.
Are you currently doing family devotions? What do they look like for your family?
Great questions!
Right now, our devotions with Addie last about 5-7 minutes, and they happen right before bed.
We are reading through a book called How Great Is Our God by Louie Giglio.
The book contains 100 devotions about God and science, and your kids can see that EVERYTHING in creation points to how great and awesome God is! It is fantastic!
Our devotion time looks like this:
- Read the book
- Share insights/discoveries
- Share gratitudes from the day
- Pray
Really simple, right?
Some families may incorporate other things into their devotional time, such as singing hymns or partaking in communion.
There is no magic formula for family devotions. Do what works for you and your crew!
This is also a great time for you and your spouse to ask good questions. See what’s on your children’s hearts. Dig a little deeper!
Be flexible with the time and don’t beat yourself up if you have a crazy busy week and miss a few nights. Life can be chaotic!
For me, the family devotional time has been great accountability. Addie looks forward to it every night and she won’t go to bed without reading the devotion for the day. It’s become so important to her!
It has also opened my eyes to how she thinks and some of her perceptions about God.
I highly recommend the practice of family devotions.
Pick a time that works for your family and watch God do great things!
Memorize Scripture
The final category for connecting with your kids about God is to memorize Scripture together.
Not only does this require discipline and commitment as a family, but it’s a great way to model a love for God’s word and a desire to hide it in your heart. (Psalm 119:11)
Another benefit of this exercise is having more opportunities for the Bible to be incorporated into your daily living.
Here’s an example from my family!
Something that we say often in our family is love keeps no record of wrongs. (I Corinthians 13:5)
This verse comes up frequently when we are dealing with a case of unforgiveness and not letting something go after it’s already been dealt with.
Addie memorized 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 when she was 3, so she is very familiar with the passage even now as an almost 7 year-old.
There are times when I remind her by saying,
“Remember Addie? Love keeps no record of wrongs. I’ve already apologized for what happened, and it’s your job to forgive and move on. Continuing to bring this up means there’s an issue with your heart. You need to let it go.”
Because this verse has been in Addie’s mind for almost 4 years, she’s had many opportunities to see this verse in action in her own life.
There have even been times when she’s had to remind me about the verse when I’m not letting something go!
If you see an area that needs work in your family, such as unforgiveness or patience or selfishness, find a verse to memorize as a family to help strengthen it.
Not only are you practicing the discipline of memorizing Scripture, but you are using God’s Word to sharpen and refine weak areas in your family.
You’re using one of the greatest tools God has given us, His Word!
If you have older kids in the house, have them look through the Bible and find the next verse for the family to memorize. Get them involved and give them ownership. They will be much more engaged if you do!
No matter how you choose to find the verses, just start memorizing!
I think you’ll be so surprised by how much of God’s Word you can digest as a family, and I believe you’ll start to see the fruits of your labor!
Let’s Wrap Things Up
If you’ve made it this far, then you obviously care about connecting with your kids about God. Way to go Mama!
For my note takers out there, here are the 5 ways one more time:
5 Ways To Connect With Your Kids About God:
- Daily Conversations
- Pray With Your Kids
- Model It
- Family Devotions
- Memorize Scripture
Remember, God has given you the privilege of parenting your children.
They are in your life for a reason.
You have all the tools you need to parent them well!
And you can’t do ANY of these things apart from relying on the strength of Christ. (John 15:5)
Start with one thing on the list and try it out for a while until it becomes a habit, then move on to the next one.
Show yourself and your kids lots of grace, and enjoy this time connecting with them about God!
Lots of love to each of you!
Lisa
Meet Lisa!
Lisa is a former kindergarten teacher turned homeschool mom. Along with blogging, she is also passionate about Jesus, encouraging women, drinking iced coffee, and making guacamole. You can read more about her humorous take on parenting and life at https://thankgoodnessitsrecess.com. Lisa resides with her husband and daughter in the Chicago suburbs.
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