Plugging into God – Teaching our Children to Trust the Lord

Essentially, we trust those whose characters are faithful. We teach our children to trust us by being a person of our word. The adage, “do what I say, not what I do”, does not apply to the godly parenting of children. In addition, doing what we say we’re going to do is critical to teaching our children to be people of their word as well. The example of what we do makes a lasting impression on our children, for most of life in the home is caught, as well as taught. If we make a commitment to our child and are unable to keep it, we must acknowledge our failure openly, apologize, and ask our child for forgiveness. Too often, I believe that parents capriciously change their minds without taking into account how such decisions will break trust with their child. Parents taking responsibility for their unfulfilled promise is critical to a child’s understanding of God’s faithfulness. If they can’t learn to trust us at our word, how will they learn to trust God at His Word?

Another area of trust that is too casually handled by parents is the concept of imaginary characters of childhood, e.g., Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. While I know that this challenge will be unpopular with some, I would like to consider the long-term implications of encouraging belief in these mythical figures on a child’s belief in God. If we lead our children to believe that these figures are real persons and go to great lengths to sustain those beliefs – just as we do in training their belief in God – we break trust with our children when they find that these characters are fictitious. Consequently, they will also doubt their belief in God on some level since there is no distinction in their young minds between the concept of an unseen character who gives them good gifts they can see or an unseen God who gives them good gifts that they often can’t see (unlike presents or candy or money!).

Whether we like it or not, we are a reflection of God’s character to our children. The highest compliment paid to a parent is when a child says that they learned who God is from what they saw in their parent. In order to reflect His character, we need to know His character. Being a parent of the Word is critical to know how to reflect His character to our children. It is also helpful to have children memorize scripture that deals with the character of God so that the truth of His attributes are hidden in their hearts and available to their minds when the enemy tempts them to doubt God’s character and, consequently, their trust in Him. Psalm 103 is a great place to start for it not only clarifies God’s attributes, but also it clarifies His understanding of who we are before Him.

We also need to reinforce the truths of God’s word with practical experience of God’s faithfulness in our lives as families and in our children’s lives as individuals. Training our children to go to God in prayer for the provision of needs, the resolution of conflicts with friends, or the solution to difficulties in school is a great way to teach the practical faithfulness of God. As parents, we need to be on the lookout for opportunities for God to show His faithfulness in our children’s lives, to encourage them to pray, and to remind them of the answer to prayer once it comes. Keeping a family prayer journal is a helpful way to keep track of these requests. Reviewing the journal periodically reinforces the faithfulness of God in a child’s mind.