Teaching kids about Jesus

When my son started to talk and communicate i felt it was the right time to start teaching him about Jesus.

I kept asking myself....Okay, but where do I begin?
And how do I explain such a big topic to my son?

I started looking for books, pictures, coloring books and so on. It all looked nice and impressive, but I just couldn't find what I felt was right for my little son.
And so I kept looking.

One day my husband told me to simply talk about Jesus in every day life.
I wasn't convinced, it cannot be that easy. I wanted something physical that I can hold in my hand and teach my son about Jesus from it. 

Time went by and I still didn't find anything I was happy with. I decided to give my husbands ideas a go. Every day I would tell my son about the wonderful things Jesus gave us, and saying thanks for everything around us. I explained to him that everything we have is thanks to God. 

Just the other day, was the day when I realized that it's working.I was one happy Mamma.

We were standing outside and out of the blue he said, "Look Mamma, look at the big moon." Before I could say anything else, he said to me:"Jesus gave us the moon, and he gave us those trees, and our car." On the outside I almost didn't know what to say, on the inside however, my heart was jumping from Joy. I felt so proud of him and happy. He said these things with such confidence, it really made my heart smile. 

So my friends, the best way to teach our kids about Jesus is to live God's Word. Be the living bible. Be the gateway through which your kids will learn about Jesus. By doing and saying good things, kids will learn what God is about. It's one thing to teach your child a piece of bible verse and another to teach them how to live it. 

And you better start early, before the world will teach them everything that God isn't.

Here are some ways to teach you child about Jesus in simple, every day life.

1) Pray out loud.
Pray for simple things and keep it short. For example if you are struggling to find something. Simply say it out loud, 
"God, please help me to find my keys."
It will teach your child to talk, pray and rely on God.

2) Be thankful
Everyday, wherever you are tell your child that God gave us everything that we have. 
For example, when walking past a flower, say "Look, God gave us this beautiful flower to enjoy." Or God gave us this warm and cosy home to live in. Remind your child to be thankful everyday for even the most simple things.

3) Tell your kids that God loves them.
Remind your kids everyday of the amazing love that God has for them. Now, we know that God loves us so much He gave us His only son. 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life John 3:16

But that might be a little bit difficult for the little minds to understand. Instead, tell them that God loves us so much that He gave us a brand new day and He gave us rain and so on.

4) Jesus is all around us.
One day my son was a little rude to me. And so as calmly as I could I told him that it was ugly what he did and he mustn't do it again. The stubborn kid he is, he carried on. So once again I said, don't do that it's ugly. But this time I added that Jesus sees everything he does and says. 
He stopped. He looked around him. He looked rather confused.
So I felt that this is my gap to explain. 
I told him that Jesus is all around us and sees everything we do and say and think. We must always remember that God gives us so much, so we mustn't break His heart by doing ugly things. 

5) Remind them to pray and pray with them.
This is very similar to point number one. But here I want to emphasise to start teaching  kids to pray. And the best way I feel is to tell them to have a conversation with God. Asking for help, saying thank you, just a simple and honest conversation. As they get older you can teach them how to say the Lord's prayer.

My friends, I hope this was helpful and that it will inspire you to teach you child (no matter how small) about God. Keep it simple so that kids can mainly focus on what they are doing and not how.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for trusting us with such beautiful children. Forgive us if there are days when we loose our patience. Please give us the strength to raise them in ways you see pleasing. Help us raise them to be God loving children.  Use us as tools in molding our children to be God's soldiers. Please Lord, keep them safe from the wickedness of the world and help us keep them on the right path.
In Jesus name, we pray. Amen