Teach them diligently, Part II

A friend asked me this week how one might do family devotions with a 16 month old. My kids are now ages 10, 8, and 6 and so I had try to remember what we used to do when my children were that age. And all I could remember was that we did a lot of singing, we acted out the stories of the Bible and, we did use many hand motions. Overall, our aim was to make it fun and energetic. I remember one time we were studying the Triumphal Entry. I wanted to visually show my children how Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem and how he was initially received by the people. We went outside and gathered branches from a tree. Then we gathered all the coats inside the house we could find. Then we draped a sheet around one of the kids (who was supposed to be dressed as Jesus). Finally, I got down on my hands and knees (like a donkey) and we placed the one dressed like Jesus on my back and we came down the hallway while the other children (along with their mother) started waving the tree branches around and threw the coats in the hallway and started chanting, “hosanna, hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” and singing that “Doughnut Man” song, “He is the King”. It took a lot of energy to teach that one scene, but it is etched in their minds to this day. I used to worry whether they would get so caught up in the activity that they would forget the purpose of the story. And then I realized they’re just kids. These story times are merely building blocks to the day when I would finally be able to unpack the fuller meaning of Jesus’ Triumphal entry. I think often times parents (especially fathers) are hesitant about teaching their toddlers or preschoolers truths from Scripture because they realize they have to get down to their level in order to communicate the message to them, and that’s uncomfortable. And it is. It’s not natural to crawl on the ground like a donkey. But if crawling around on the ground like a donkey is laying a foundation for later discussions about the future reign of Christ and how they need to submit their lives to Christ’s rule, isn’t it a small price to pay.