Sometimes in Children’s Ministry or with our own kids its easy to skip the hard things of the Word. We want to play God in our kids lives and decide when we think they are ready to learn certain things in the Scriptures. Romans chapter one is one of those passages… and well so is Genesis chapter two, and well so is the majority of the Scriptures… I mean have you ever read Ezekiel or Hosea or Revelation? As my husband said, you can only teach David and Goliath and Daniel and the Lion’s Den so many times before you have to move on.
Our kids live in a world that is not willing to protect their innocence. Our God knows that. That is why He has recorded all that He has in His Word. The world does not protect our kids innocence and so God has provided us with the tools we need to keep them from being ignorant. Ignorance leads to wrong choices and wrong assumptions and it leads to hunger and thirst that is satisfied with unhealthy things. A starving person will become hungry enough that they will even eat food that comes out of the trash and is filled with rats and roaches.
Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
Isaiah 5:13
We also cannot train our children up in a way that has them picking and choosing what parts of the Scriptures are relevant to them and when. Who are we to make that call? Who are we to decide that God has not brought them to this passage in Scripture at this very time for such a time as this to prepare them for something they will face possibly the very next day?
A friend of mine shared with me about a time when she was going through the book of Genesis and she came upon a passage of Scripture she did not want to discuss just yet with her little girl… as she read skipping over this particular passage her daughter stopped her and pointed to the passage she skipped and let her know that she had missed that part.
My friend then had a choice. She could deny her child knowledge of the Word of God because it was uncomfortable for her to have to share it. Or she could go back, say she was sorry she skipped that part, and share the whole counsel of the Word of God with her child.
She chose to go back and read and discuss the passage of Scripture with her daughter.
No, discussing sex, and spilled semen, and rape, and incest, and degrading passions, and homosexuality with our kids is not comfortable for us… but let me assure you that this world is perfectly comfortable with teaching them all about it. Kids at school are perfectly comfortable. Our government is perfectly comfortable. Television is more than comfortable. Music on the radio is more than comfortable.
The world is ready to shock and awe your child. The world is ready and willing to work with Satan and the sin nature in your child to lead them down a path of slavery and destruction.
As parents, as Christians, we must not let the world blindside our kids. Ignorance does not keep innocence.
My husband and I have decided that it is our responsibility to keep our kids one step ahead of the world. We protect their eyes and ears and minds by letting our kids know that we say yes and no according to what God tells us in Scripture. They must know the truth, so that when the enemy tries to sneak in a lie they can recognize it and will be able to turn away before they are sucked into it and held captive.
I do not know what lies are being whispered into my child’s ears as they go in this life. I do not know what sins of which they are predispositioned. I do not know what traps have been laid ahead of them. I do not know what evils they will encounter when. All I can do is prepare them for all of them and pray that when the evil one comes against them they have their armor on and that they stand firm.
and you will know the truth,
and the truth will make you free.
John 8:32
God tells us to teach the Word. He doesn’t tell us to pick and choose what of the Word we teach as according to what is comfortable. As for us and our house we start with a book and we teach the whole book. Come what may… we pray… and we teach with as much conviction and straight face and forwardness we can with all the grace and tenderness that we can. Preserving innocence through knowledge of what is evil and good according to God’s Word… not the world.
Right now our eleven year old is studying inductively through the book of Exodus in her personal study time having completed the book of Genesis. She is going through the entire Bible book by book. Our eleven and eight year old are currently studying through Romans at church, having just completed the entire book Revelation. Our eight year old also is studying through the names of God in her personal study time and will next begin the book of John and then she too will begin at Genesis.
Please know that your kids can handle truth. Give it to them. Lay a solid foundation on which truth can build. Don’t set a brick here and there all over the place. A foundation is laid by connecting brick to brick. Precept upon precept. Line upon line.
Have I not written to you excellent things
Of counsels and knowledge,
To make you know the certainty of the words of truth
That you may correctly answer him who sent you?
Proverbs 22:20-22