How to Teach Your Kids to Appreciate God’s Word

How to Teach Your Kids to Appreciate God’s Word

One of our jobs as parents is to plant the Word of God into our children’s lives. God’s Word provides them with a solid foundation upon which their lives can be built. In 1 Peter 1:24-25, we read, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field: the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” Creating an appreciation for God’s Word in kids isn’t always an easy task! But, I encourage you to do the best you can. Be persistent, pray, and then let God be God — who does the work to change lives! Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Surround Your Kids with Good Resources. Younger children love Bible stories filled with action; stories like David and Goliath, Abraham and Lot, the Birth of Jesus, etc. So, if your kids are young, read Bible stories to them often. Utilize the many top-quality Christian videos available today. You’ll be planting the concept that the Bible is important in your children’s lives. If your children are older, be sure they have a Bible translation that they can better understand. There are any number of “youth friendly” translations and “student” Bibles available.

Model Your Own Appreciation for God’s Word to Your Children. Do you have a regular devotional time where you read and study the Bible? Do your kids know it? How about letting your kids watch you model your own appreciation for God’s Word? Don’t forget that your actions will teach your kids a lot about how important you believe the Bible to be — probably even more than your words!

Create the Expectation that the Bible is an Everyday Guide for Everyday Life. You can raise your children’s level of expectation of the Bible (and their appreciation for it) by demonstrating to them that God’s Word is a trustworthy, everyday guide for life.

Teach Your Children How to Study God’s Word. The wisdom found in the following old adage, “Give a man a fish and he’ll be hungry tomorrow; teach a man how to fish and he’ll never go hungry again” also applies when it comes to teaching our kids to have an appreciation for God’s Word. If we, as parents, only tell our children about what they can find in the Bible, without teaching them how to discover and learn from the Bible on their own, they’ll become dependent on us, or on others, for their spiritual feeding. As your children grow older, be sure to give them the tools they need to be able to learn from the Scriptures on their own.