Entrusted to Teach: A Parent’s Calling to Reveal God’s Truths to Their Children

In my time with the Lord this morning, in the scripture passages I was reading, God combined an experience from last weekend and the verses I read to form an exhortative thought. In Revelation 7:9-12, John, the author, sees those who are saved, along with the angels and elders, in the throne room of God. They praise and worship Him, naming His attributes and the qualities they believe about Him.

First, I asked myself how often I worship Him by naming the qualities I have experienced and know to be true from my relationship with Him. I want to do this more. Next, I thought about children today. I see the busy lifestyles of parents who want the best for their children but sometimes miss the most important thing they can give them: a solid foundation of the stories of God throughout the Bible. They are included to teach us how those people in the stories experienced God and came to know not just about Him but to know Him in specific situations enough to make their praise personal. Children need to hear Bible stories and learn who God is through those stories. In my experience as a parent and a Children’s Minister, I know it is easy to relegate this part of parenting to the church, but God asks parents to be primarily responsible. God wants parents to know what content from the Bible their child has heard and to use it to train their children to see the same God demonstrating His attributes in their daily experiences. God, experienced over and over again throughout childhood, prepares them for the teen years when faith in God must become their own.

A new year is before us. Might God want you to make this more of a priority in your life or in your child’s life? There are so many wonderful Bible storybooks that can assist you in seeing God’s characteristics in the story. Why not give your child one of these as a present, along with the promise of using it with them? I think in this way we honor an aspect of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. May His kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.