Teach a child in the way he should go

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One of my deepest desires for my children is that they should know God. That, they should be able to experience His love and grow strong in faith. Not because I'm super religious or because it seems like the right thing to do, but because without God, life is meaningless. 

I have seen close members in my family, who struggle with accepting God and understanding things related to God. It started in their childhood with the parents who didn't see the value in introducing the child to a church where they were actually taught something. I wish parents would see the importance of teaching children at the right time, or it is sometimes too late.

With my 4 and 1/2 year old son, I have found that it is difficult for him to grasp a concept like God. It is not tangible, and since he cannot see it, it's hard to explain. I totally understand that one wouldn't be able to take a bible and bombard a four year old with it. 

Yet, when I hear him saying things about God and singing songs from what he has learned in his pre-school, I know that his mind is forever absorbing and processing things related to faith. How and when my children learn about God is between them and God, but the process of getting there is so crucial and should be an interesting and vibrant experience for the child. 

I pray that God brings the right teachers in my kids life, teachers that don't dumb things down but teach children to question and understand. I thank God that He made provision for my child to attend a good preschool where the teachers are thoughtful and resourceful enough to engage the little ones. If Daniel did not have that, he would have nothing. We have done precious little for him as parents.

As I was pondering about these things, I ended up googling on how to teach young children and landed on a webpage with a question that a teacher was asking on a message board. Her question was also essentially the same as mine. As in, how she could engage children so that they would learn about God. The only difference was that she was asking in relation to a Sunday school classroom.

She got a bunch of responses, but one that stood out for me was from an atheist. He replied by saying that he was an atheist. He turned an atheist at seven years of age. He also very seriously told her that children don't understand religion, so don't teach them anything. Just, give them crayons and a bunch of coloring pages with Jesus pictures and do arts and crafts.

One has to then wonder if that was his impression about God or religion, it is not surprising that he is an atheist. And, also how we tend to think that our kids have so much time to figure this out, but this man turned away from God at the age of seven and never looked back. Our Sunday school classes for kids that age at church is also essentially about giving them coloring books and very little substance. 

I pray that God would give us burden for our kids. That, He would give us the same dedication that Hannah had when she took her child, Samuel to Eli as soon as he was weaned at 3 years of age to be taught about God. Samuel grew up strong in faith and it all started with the parent.

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Mark 10:13)

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