“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8
What does it look like for you to meditate on God’s Word, day and night? How about for your children to do so? I often think that to be meditating on God’s Word, I need to be pushing myself harder, farther in my understanding. Or for my children, they need to be learning and growing in tangible, very noticeable ways – especially since they are pastor’s kids.
At times, we do need to be pushed to grow more in our faith, challenged to step out of our comfort zone, and stretch our understanding of Who God is. But often, we need to keep digging deeper into the basics; we need to keep returning to the fountain of grace that is the basics of the gospel message.
This is true too for our children! They don’t need to know complicated theological terms or understand college level concepts – they need to be firmly grounded in the gospel so that they can always return to that as they grow in their faith. As they get older, new things will challenge them and stretch them and they need to be rooted in God’s Word to have a biblical filter for processing and understanding these new things.
This is why I love Awana. It is a Bible training ministry for kids that has been around far longer than I have. It certainly isn’t the only such program, just the one that I know best from my own experience growing up in it, participating now as a leader, and having my kids in it too.
I love how every year we are reviewing verses that teach the heart of the gospel, both studying them and working to memorize them. These are the same verses that I STILL have memorized as an adult due to the years I spent as a child studying and memorizing them.
As we spend time each week studying verses with our children, we are meditating on God’s Word. We are teaching our children to think about God’s Word regularly and to revisit it often, not just study a verse then move on without ever coming back. As we revisit previously studied verses, we teach them that God’s Word applies to us all throughout our lives, from the time we are young to the time we are old and gray. We are teaching them that our understanding of God’s Word grows and develops along with us as we grow older, and that it never stops teaching us something new.
I’ve also noticed that helping my kids learn these basics year after year helps me grow, too. I’m amazed by how often the material that my kids are studying applies so perfectly to what is going on in my life at that time. I end up being challenged and growing in my faith just as much as my kids while I am teaching them.
Whatever method you choose to use with your children, I encourage you to dig deeply with them into the basics of the gospel. Pick verses that teach kids about our need for salvation, God’s grace, Jesus’ death and resurrection, and so much more! Study the verses together and even try memorizing some of them together. For those who struggle with memorizing, try shortening a verse or picking the main thought inside the verse to memorize. For example, Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” but the struggling memorizer could say, “for all have sinned.”
As you work on studying God’s Word with your children, don’t let yourself be discouraged! Things will not go easily for you – kids are kids, life is busy, and the enemy certainly doesn’t want us to ground our kids in the basics, so there will be distractions and all manner of things that get in the way. But keep pressing on! Don’t worry if you miss a few days, or a week, or a few weeks. I am terrible about doing daily devotional books because I inevitably miss a day here or there, and then become so discouraged from falling behind, that I give up entirely. I have to remind myself that God doesn’t care about me checking off a box in my calendar or on my to-do list. He simply wants me to keep coming back to Him and meditating on His Word, even as I do it imperfectly.
That is what we need to teach our children, too. They will not do it perfectly. They won’t be able to memorize or understand every verse we teach them. They will have times when they feel irritated by taking time out of their day to do this. They need to know that we all struggle–even us adults–as we grow in our faith and it is part of the process, but we will keep meditating on His Word day and night so that we can continue growing in Him.
If you want to start working with your kids but don’t know where to go, here are some verses that are a great place to begin:
- Joshua 1:9
- Proverbs 3:5-6
- Isaiah 41:10
- John 3:16
- John 14:6
- Romans 3:23
- Romans 5:8
- Romans 6:23
- 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
- Galatians 5:22-23
- Ephesians 2:8-9
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
- 1 John 1:9
This list is in no way exhaustive or superior to any other list of verses you might choose to use, as the list isn’t the point–the point is, let’s help our kids get started meditating on God’s Word!
Lord God, please help us as we train our children to meditate on Your Word day and night. May Your Word grow in their hearts, making them more like You.
