How to Help Your Child Share Christ + FREE Bible Study Tools
Published:
February 22, 2020
Contributor:
Jeannette Tuionetoa
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Oh boy, do I have a story for you. Maybe it isn’t too exciting for you, but it opened my eyes to what I considered a priority with my children. We try to instill the Lord’s Word in our kids, from birth even. Yet, we never know if they will respond to it. We don’t really know if they are truly getting it. Well, I am asking you to never give up. His Word never comes up void. Learn a few things you can do to help your child share Christ with others and grab our free Bible study tools! It is our great commission.
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Something I learned as a parent when it comes to the gospel, is that we cannot push our kids to witness to others. I mean, forcing our kids to talk to other kids about Jesus is about as effective as forcing a two-month-old to use the potty. Being forceful with something that should eventually become natural, just won’t work.
I have learned that teaching our children God’s Word, and keeping Christ the focus of our lives is how we can help our children to share Christ with others. When they are little, it is easier than when they grow older.
There are so many outside pressures as kids grow closer to the middle school years. They are more aware and concerned about the world around them.
No matter the reluctance of our kids to tell others about Jesus in the future, God’s Word will be written on their hearts. That is all we can do, train them in the way they should go until the end of days.
Storytime:
My son (age 9) is a HIGH energy boy. I mean, bless his heart, he just can’t stay still. I have to implement alternative means of teaching him for his learning style.
Bible study is a whole new beast when comes to teaching him. It honestly looks like he isn’t paying attention. My husband has learned to let him move around. It never fails that if we think he isn’t paying attention, we ask him a question about our reading, and he answers correctly every time. He just can’t sit still while he is doing it. We understand him now.
One day our concerns came full circle when we find that he was spreading and defending God’s Word when no adult was present, and among other kids who didn’t stick up for Christ. It melted my heart, and I had never been prouder.
We have home-church on Friday nights at our friend’s house. On one Friday our friend’s niece and nephew were visiting from New Zealand. Their parents are both psychiatrists, both atheists. I never thought much about the interaction of the kids visiting, since all the home church kids were there as well.
After our study every Friday, we fellowship and break bread together. We went home and later received a call from my friend the very next day. She and her husband proceeded to tell my husband and me a recount of the event that happened the night before during fellowship.
Her kids stated that her nephew began talking to about God not being real. My son was NOT having it. My son was the only child who was defending Christ and telling the boy about Jesus’ death and resurrection.
He had a rebuttal for any statement the boy would claim that was against there being a God. For instance, the boy was telling the kids that we needed to only believe in science. He said scientists made technology and that we couldn’t do anything without technology. My son told him we didn’t need technology that we could just walk to our friend’s house and talk to them that way.
The boy stated science was a solution to everything since scientists made cars, bikes and “stuff.” My son told him that if we never had science, it would be okay because all we needed was God. My son said it didn’t matter if he didn’t believe Jesus was real. He is real even if we believe in Him or not, and He is coming back one day.
When my friend was telling my husband and me the recap of the story, I wanted to weep. Maybe I did. It was following a few weeks when schooling was super challenging for me and my son. He wasn’t getting a math concept, and his writing was not progressing. I was feeling like a failure and so was he.
Regardless of our struggles, God was faithful to use my son for His glory. God was also faithful to remind me that I could stay feeling like a failure when things don’t go as planned in educating my kids (or in life). However, no matter how school goes and how much I worry about my son’s education, He knew the most critical thing in this whole world. My son knew Jesus.
The truth is that kids “get it,” they “get it” more than we think they do. They are less inhibited, less worried about what the world has to say about what they know is Truth. Kids have a boldness that will surprise us. For that alone, we should take comfort in what we teach them about Christ.
As kids get older, it does get more complicated. However, we should trust that the Lord is faithful to complete the work He has started in them. If not boldly sharing the gospel regularly, they will speak up when it counts.
There are a few ways I think would help our kids get comfortable with sharing Christ.
1. Prepare your child to answer the tough questions.
If you are anything like me, you can feel stumped in some of the questions your kids ask about God’s Word. That is OK. Find out the truth from the scriptures, and let them see you try. Ask your kids questions that require them to research God’s Word. Prepare them, just as we are instructed to be prepared to make a defense for the gospel.
Peter 3:15, “…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
2 Timothy 4:2, ” preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
2. Help them to memorize scripture.
I am horrible at remembering scripture. Honestly, it takes so much for me to memorize God’s Word. Sometimes I read, and it is as if I completely forgot what I learned just two minutes prior.
Don’t let that stop you. Have you ever had a time when you were speaking to someone, and scripture just pops to mind? You miraculously remember a word from the Bible that is perfect and fitting for the moment. You have no idea where you were hiding it away, yet here you recall it for this person who desperately needed it.
That is God, and that is God’s Word hidden in your heart through reading it. That is precisely what reading God’s Word will do for your children if they share the gospel. Never stop reading with them, because He will never stop using those who are willing.
Memorizing scripture prepares and equips our kids (all of us) to share God’s truth with others. It also helps them encourage others in and point others to Christ.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[a] may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
3. Let your kids fail, let them get rejected.
You must be thinking, “What does failure have to do with sharing the gospel?” I tell you that it has EVERYTHING to do with sharing the gospel with others. See, sharing the gospel means your kids may get made fun of. It means they will get hurt or wonder why others don’t see things as they do.
Getting your children to be OK with failing, yet trying again – getting rejected, yet not feeling crushed will help them with the fear of sharing God’s Word with people let it fall by the wayside.
Remind your kids about these verses:
Luke 10:16, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me.”
John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, know that it had hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you.”
Explore these resources to help your child learn more about Christ:
Christ-Centered Fieldschooling Homeschool
FREE Writing Prompts from the Life of Christ
At The Crossroads- Making Christ-Centered Choices with FREE Workbook
Child Evangelism Resources | Let the Little Children Come
This FREE Bible study printable can be found in our subscriber library for an instant download. Learn more about it here.
I say all this to remind you that as long as you are teaching Christ, empowering our kids with the gospel, and pointing them towards Christ, your kids will be more likely to share Christ with others around them. When kids learn to love the Lord, they can’t help but tell people. In your home, make it a habit to Seek ye first the kingdom of God.