I've been very excited and thankful and honored by all the views, encouragement and positive comments I've received since my first post was linked with The Nester's 31 day blogging challenge! Thank you! I hope this Teaching Toddlers Theology series is helpful to us all and that I'm able to keep up with it, since I AM raising a toddler and all! :)
There are a lot of great 31 day blog topics that I plan to follow along with this month! Click over to view what other 31 dayers are writing about!
{Did you miss Day One? View it here!}
Okay, Day 2... Here we go! :)
The most important thing to being able to teach our kids to know and love God and His Word... Our own lives, as parents! It starts with us!
It has to be real in our lives first! We have to do the things that we hope to emulate in our kids' lives! Our kids must see that the Lord is real to US, and that His Word is important to us before they will want to join in with us and make God a part of their lives.
Do your little ones hear you talking about the Lord throughout the day? Do they see you spend time in the Word?
In order to create a love in their little hearts, they must see how valuable it is.
They see it's value in OUR lives!
Wow! That's a lot of pressure!
And it's at this tender toddler age that they begin to really see what's important to us! They know what means the most to us and whether or not our spiritual "talk" is real! Sure, they may not be able to verbalize it all, or have complete understanding to what and why we do things, but they will be able to tell by the things we spend the most time on, what gets us excited, and what we make the effort for! For me, my time on the computer while my kids are awake is something the Lord has been convicting me of- I need to have more self-control in this area! What do my kids think I value based on what they see?
Our toddlers are forming their views of God even now, and we need to be keeping ourselves sharp spiritually so we can be the best possible to shape their tender hearts and minds!
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Is our love for the Lord REAL? Do even our toddlers KNOW it?
Look at your life/your daily schedule the way your toddler might, and ask yourself what he/she might say the most important things are to you based on the majority of your conversation or time spent!
Hey,
ReplyDeleteREALLY struggling with this lately. But this morning (after months of being up with the baby at least twice/night) I was just really honest with my 3 year old and said "Mommy woke up really grumpy today (as if she didn't know!) and so I need some Bible and prayer time." I was surprised by how willing she was to give me my time. So I put the baby in the jumperoo, and I was able to refocus. Hopefully she saw a difference.
I'm really looking forward to your series. My biggest struggle is how to share the gospel with my toddler in words she can understand. Unlike your son, our girl seems really resistant to spiritual things--not wanting to pay attention when we have Bible time every day, and sometimes doesn't want to participate in praying. SO discouraging. But we'll keep at it.
This is so true, Mary Beth! Oh how I pray that my children will see that I love Jesus, not just hear me talk about it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post! There is no escaping this, is there? : )
ReplyDeleteI praise God for that!
This is still a daily decision for me.
Thanks for sharing!
This is amusing! I'm about to start a 10 day series on almost the same subject (all ages, not just toddlers), and my first day is going to be similar. I'll have to link back to you and tell them to come here for more ideas.
ReplyDeleteJust started reading. Looks like a great series!
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