10 Tips for Teaching Kids about Jesus: How Christian Parents can Raise God-Loving Children

27/1/2018

10 Tips for Teaching Kids about Jesus: How Christian Parents can Raise God-Loving Children

As Christian parents, teaching our kids about Jesus should be our highest priority. It is the best present you can give to your children. Let's raise them to be God-loving children! Image credits: www.kidsofintegrity.com .

In this blog post, I will share 10 tips for teaching kids about Jesus and how you as a Christian parent can help your child to come to know and love Him.
These tips are based on what we practice with our daughter and also what we plan to practice with her in the future as well.

As I am writing this, our daughter Maeleth Sarah Goh is 23 months old, turning 2 next month! Reflecting on the past 2 years, I have made some parenting mistakes and also have had some parenting wins.

However I feel that the most important thing I can do for my daughter is to help her know Jesus. I want to raise her in a Jesus-exalting environment, and let her start benefiting from the sweet life of having a covenant relationship with God from a young age.

You see, I was not born into a Christian family. My parents believe in a diluted version of Taoism/Buddhism and I believe that because I was raised in such an environment since young, the devil had many opportunities to attack me and hold me back from enjoying the good life that Jesus died to give me.

It was not until I turned 17 that I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior and found out all that I had been missing out on in life.

My wife Amilee was also not born or raised in a Christian family and went through many setbacks and hardship in life too.
We both feel that all that unnecessary hurt that she went through was because Jesus wasn't her Lord and Savior yet.

Therefore, it is our deepest desire for Mae to receive Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior from as young an age as possible and grow to be a God-loving child.

1) Include Jesus in your everyday conversation with your kids.

When we make Jesus the center of our lives, everything will be held together.

We love talking about Jesus, discussing how good He is and telling Mae about Him.

Here are some ways you can include Jesus in your everyday conversations with your kids:

In the morning, praise the Lord in the presence of your child saying "Thank you Jesus for this new day. Your grace is new every morning! This is the day you have made - we will rejoice and be glad in it."

At night, sing your child to sleep with Jesus-centered worship songs like "Jesus Loves Me". Kiss him or her and say "Sleep well. Jesus is with you and He will give you blessed and happy dreams."

When good things happen, say in front of your child "Thank you Jesus! It is because of You that we have this blessing!"

When setbacks come, encourage your child by saying "Don't worry, Jesus will help us through this. He is our Shield and our Defender!"

At all times whether good or bad, keep making Jesus the most important part of your life.

When your child sees how central Jesus is to your life, he or she will get a sense of how real, reliable and good Jesus is.

2) Play praise and worship songs during the day in the background and throughout the night.

We love to play praise and worship music in the house. After falling in love with it, no other genre of music is as enjoyable.

Music has a great power to influence people’s thoughts, emotions and even beliefs. Praise and worship music has many benefits for its listeners too.

By playing Jesus-centered songs for Mae, we hope that they will let come to know Jesus and experience His love and goodness.

We currently play “Oceans” by Hillsong for Mae through the night.
I feel that it’s a very suitable song for that purpose because there aren’t much strong drums or bass beats which may make her feel unrested.

You can click here to shop for Hillsong Worship's anointed praise and worship albums!

3) Partake of the Holy Communion everyday together as a family.

My wife and I partake of the Holy Communion (aka the Lord’s Supper) with Mae at home every day.
We purchase pre-packed communion elements and the three of us share one daily.
Mae loves taking communion and she says “Amen” and “Praise God” too.

There are many physical and spiritual benefits in partaking of the Holy Communion, some of which are:

1) It is a way of receiving divine healing from God.

2) It is a great way to focus on Jesus and remember His finished work at the cross.

3) It is a blessed time of family bonding over an activity that’s truly meaningful.

This is the prayer that I say when I lead our time of communion:

The Bread:

”Lord Jesus, thank You for Your body that was broken at the cross for our healing. We declare that by Your stripes, we are healed, healthy, strong, and young forever, Amen!”

The Blood:

”Lord Jesus, thank You for the blood that You shed at the cross for the forgiveness of all our sins. We declare that we are forgiven of all our sins past, present future, and that we are blessed and forever the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Amen!”

Enjoy this video of the three of us partaking of the Holy Communion together. Feel free to watch this video and partake with us too!

4) Read Jesus-centered books to your kids.

Right now, Mae has an interesting habit - She is extremely difficult to coax to sleep in the afternoon and one of the only ways is to read the Book of Proverbs in the Bible to her.

What book is more Jesus-centered than the Bible right?

I also read a book called “The Baby Bible ABCs” to her - it’s a children’s book that teaches the alphabets through Bible stories.

I find that most children enjoy reading and being told stories so it is another great way for teaching kids about Jesus.

Instead of only reading books about normal stuff like animals, numbers, alphabets and shapes, why not read children's books about Jesus too?

You can set a routine whereby you read one Jesus-centered book to your child every night - a full book if it's short or a chapter if it's long.

Consistency and repetition work really well with kids. I find that I can keep reading the same book to Mae and she doesn't get bored of it. After a while, she can even repeat what happens in the story back to me as well!

Reading Jesus-centered books can be a great pre-sleep bonding activity for you and your child, and it's a great opportunity to share Jesus with him or her subtly on a daily basis.

You can find a great selection of Jesus-centered children's books for your child here!

5) Encourage your kids to view Jesus-centered videos and apps when they use electronic devices.

It's amazing how tech-savvy kids are nowadays - you show them once and they grasp how to operate a device straight away.

Maeleth likes to watch kids shows on YouTube on the iPad. One way we make the screen time more beneficial and educational for her is by sometimes showing her Jesus-centered kids videos.

That way she can enjoy herself while also being exposed to Jesus in a fun manner. There are many adorable animations available online.

Other times, we let Mae watch the kids shows of her choice. Be sure to monitor what your child watches too because sometimes some shows can teach wrong things or have inappropriate content - parental guidance while your child is on YouTube is extremely important.

Read my other blog post about this: A Kid Safe YouTube begins with Parental Guidance (Featuring Kids Songs that are Dangerous for Children)

If your child enjoys watching cartoons, you could try showing him or her the "VeggieTales" series on Netflix if you are subscribed to it.
That cartoon teaches Biblical principles and about the love of God for us through the cute and funny adventures that the main characters go through. The songs are also pretty catchy!

I also personally love the Bible App for Kids by YouVersion which I find is fun, interactive, education, super Jesus-centered and is a great mobile app for teaching kids about Jesus. It is available for download on both the App Store and Google Play Store.

6) Enroll them in a Christian school that teaches and believes in the gospel of grace.

Amilee and I have a Christian school in mind that we plan to enroll Mae into when she reaches the age for it. I am praying to the Lord that she will be successfully accepted!

In my secondary school and junior college days, I was a student of Anglo Chinese School (Independent) in Singapore.

I am forever grateful that Jesus led me there because that school makes the word of God an integral part of their school system.

Every morning during school assembly, there would be a devotional and verse shared and we would pray together as a school.
On Mondays, there would be chapel service and the school pastor would preach a message and we would sing praise and worship songs together as a school.

At that time, I wasn't a believer yet but due to the influence of the school and my fellow classmates who were believers, I got curious and eventually invited myself to church and got saved!

The full story with the juicy details is going to be another post for another day, haha!

School is going to be such a big part of our childrens' lives so I feel that choosing one that honors and prioritizes Jesus and the word of God is really important - We should aim to send our kids to a school that teaches kids about Jesus.

7) Bring your kids to church with you every Sunday.

Is attending church important to you? Well for Amilee and I, church is what we look forward to every week!

We need to feed on His word for us, if not the whole of the next week we will feel down and spiritually-empty.

If attending church is a priority for you, then why shouldn't it be for your children too? Bring them to church with you!

We are super blessed that in New Creation Church in Singapore where Amilee and I worship at, they have a great children's ministry where we can leave Mae at.

They teach Mae about Jesus through play, songs, and story-telling, and it frees us up to attend church services together as a couple. We are so thankful for this blessing!

Don't think that your children are too young to go to church or that it won't benefit them anyway.

Their spirits can receive from the Lord and I feel that it's important to give them as much exposure to Jesus as possible.

If your children are not being taught by the Lord from young, you can be sure that the devil is working hard to teach them his own set of worldly values and beliefs through the media, their friends, and other people in their lives.

We need to teach them the ways of the Lord from a young age. I'll leave this verse with you:

"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6 NKJV)

8) Practice thanksgiving before meals together with your family.

Before we eat our food we say a simple prayer to thank God for His provision in our lives.

It's as short as this: "Thank You Jesus for the food, sanctify it in Jesus' name, Amen!".

I feel that it doesn't have to be a long prayer, it just needs to be sincere.

Before I feed Mae her fresh milk from the milk bottle twice daily, I would say "Thank You Jesus for the milk, sanctify it in Jesus' name." and Mae would reply "Amen".

I want to make thanksgiving a daily part of Mae's life, and I believe that saying thanks to Jesus before meals is a great way of teaching kids about Jesus.

It also helps to teach your children that Jesus is the Source of provision and that He is the One who supplies all our needs. The earlier our children know that, the better!

9) Choose a "verse of the day" everyday and memorize it and meditate on it together as a family.

This is something that I plan to do for Mae's benefit when she is able to read on her own in the future.

How it will go is Amilee and I will pray for a verse to meditate on as a family every day and share it with Mae as well.

I feel that this is a great way to familiarize your children with God's word and in times of need, the Holy Spirit can bring to remembrance the verse to help encourage your child.

Think about it: A verse each day means 365 verses a year! If your children can remember a few and keep them in the midst of their hearts, that's very powerful!

Right now, Amilee and I are doing Bible Study together every night. We choose a book in the Bible and we start from the beginning of it, studying one chapter every night.

After reading it, we share our personal takeaways with each other. I really enjoy this time of couple bonding with her and I feel super blessed that I have a God-loving wife who enjoys God's word.

At the start of 2018, we began with the Book of Proverbs to prioritize seeking God's Hesed wisdom.

Do check out my Bible Study Takeaways from the Book of Proverbs too - I am sure you will be tremendously blessed by it!

10) Practice what you preach: Be a role model for your kids by parenting them with grace.

It is really easy to tell others what the right thing to do is, but what happens when you have to live that truth in your own life as well?

I believe that children learn more from what they see us doing, and not what they hear us tell them.

The best thing you can do for your children is to live by grace and faith and show them how a king and priest to God should live.

They will be watching and be inspired by your example if you do it right. I pray that I will be such a role model for Mae.

I want to parent Mae with grace: Like how Jesus expresses His love for His disciples regularly, and yet firmly rebukes them when they need correction, so that they can profit from the discipline.

I recently attended a parenting seminar conducted by Pastor Matthews and his wife Rachel in New Creation Church and took away so many amazing lessons in parenting preschoolers.

You can read my personal notes of the seminar here if you join us as a patron. I know you will be extremely blessed by the many revelations in there - especially on how to train and discipline your children!

Pinterest Pinnable Image. Repin this to share with your fellow parent friends how they can teach their kids about Jesus too! Let's help to champion for a new generation of God-loving children!

How do you teach your kids about Jesus? Share your tips and stories with me in the comments below!

Remember, if you enjoyed this post, you can also check out my Patreon for more exclusive Bible studies and devotionals that are not posted anywhere else.

I hope that you have been blessed by reading this post on "10 Tips for Teaching Kids about Jesus: How Christian Parents can Raise God-Loving Children".

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Be blessed and walk in divine favor,
Milton Goh
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4 Comments

Rachel Frampton link

23/11/2020 08:24:53 am

My aunt would like to teach his son about Christianity faith, which is why she's currently looking for a Christian fantasy kids book. Well, you made a pretty good point that it is necessary to teach children about the importance of saying thank you Jesus whenever good things happen to them. We also share the same opinion that it would be helpful to encourage her kids to say Jesus will help us get through this every time a problem occurs.

Milton Goh

23/11/2020 11:05:45 am

Hi Rachel,

Amen! Let the children feel like Jesus is the real, living God that He is. Just as you would talk to a family member and include him in your daily interactions, do the same with Jesus, even though we cannot see Him.

Natsumi link

1/9/2023 01:07:02 pm

Hello mate nice ppost

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