T.T. 49 - What children need to understand about God.
T.T. 49 - What children need to understand about God.Before starting to teach a new class of children, it is a good idea to ask yourself "At the end of the year, what do I want these children to really understand about God?"
If we each wrote down a list of what we thought was really important for our children to understand about God, it would obviously depend upon the age of the children, their backgrounds and their previous 'Bible' teaching. However, our list of what we wanted them to learn would probably include such things as teaching them to recite John 3.16, the Lord's prayer, the Ten Commandments, and even the Books of the Bible. We would probably also want our children to be thoroughly familiar with some of the best known Bible stories, such as Easter, Christmas, David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion's den, etc. And this is all good - as long as it is not an end in itself!
Unfortunately 'Knowing' something is not the same as understanding it. I have known children who, for example, could recite the Lord's prayer perfectly, but still having little understanding of what the prayer actually means! Rather, our aim should be to ensure that each child comes to an understanding of what God is really like. And this means explaining to the children what a particular Scripture or Bible story really teaches us about God. The Bible verses and stories are really tools which we can use to bring our children to a deeper understanding of the nature of God.
Here is a list of what I believe children really need to understand about God. You may wish to add to it, but keep it in mind during your teaching sessions.
1. God is always there. Wherever we go, God is always right there with us.
2. God always answers prayers. His answer may be "Yes", "No", or "Wait", but He will always answer us.
3. God always understands. No matter what is happening in our lives, no matter how we feel, God always understands about us.
4. God always forgives. No matter what we may have done, God will always forgive us if we are really sorry.
5. God always loves. We can never stop God loving us, because "He is love."
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 12:13 AM
