The book of Ecclesiastes says that God has “set eternity in the human heart,” implying something that has been backed by developmental and psychological research: that children, by nature, seek out something larger than themselves.
Yale psychologist Paul Bloom notes that children, regardless of the beliefs of the people who raised them, prefer explanations about the origins of animals and people that include an intentional Creator. Justin Barrett, a professor of developmental science, calls children “born believers,” just as children are born to eventually talk or walk, it doesn’t take much environmental input to get children to wonder about a higher power.
If this longing to see a Creator is innate in children, how do we, as parents, caregivers, and ministry leaders, teach children to look for God and His character in all things?
If this is present in children by nature, it would suggest to me that our job is not to teach them to look for God, but instead to shape their theology in such a way that their natural propensity to wonder and look is answered in the God who is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.
If you want children to look for God, they need to first look in His Word so they know what they are looking for.
Teaching Children to Look for God
My daughter has always been a wonder seeker. I have pages of quotes with her full wonder on display.
When she was eight years old, as I tucked her into bed, I said “May God bless you, sweet one!” She replied with wide eyes, “He already has!” When I asked her how God had blessed her, she said, “This morning! With a brand-new day! God knows how much I LOVE days!” She is the child who would notice the flowers dancing in the wind, or the way “God painted snowflakes” on the car windshield, even as I dreaded scraping the frost left overnight.
While I would love to say it was our immaculate parenting skills that developed that sense of wonder in her, I believe that we came alongside her wonder with our theology, as we sought to help her see the One who made her to wonder and made all she wonders at. She would notice the wonder, and we would name the Creator.
Developing Theology
If we want to teach children to look for God, we must help them develop a full and robust view of who God is, which requires us to consider our theology and how we are teaching theology—the study of God—to children. God reveals Himself to us through His Word, so any and all theology we are teaching children has to begin with the Bible. If you want children to look for God, they need to first look in His Word so they know what they are looking for.
To help kids develop a theology from God’s Word, you might:
- Make a list of the names and attributes of God from Scripture. Our church created an alphabetical resource of attributes of God for families to use. One suggestion is to choose one letter of the alphabet, and only pray prayers praising God for attributes starting with that letter. You could also choose one name or attribute each day, and challenge your kids to look for ways God is working in their world in that way—and then talk about them at dinner!
- Read the Bible and specifically identify one truth about God from the passage you read. Then form an application from that truth using the formula, “God is ________, so I will ______.” This helps kids to understand that reflecting God in action to the world helps others to understand who God is!
- Find characteristics of God in the Bible that seem to be opposite, and talk about how God can be both of those things. How can He fight for us, but also be a gentle shepherd? How can he be both powerful and personal? Talking about those things not only gives language to kids to be able to talk about God, but it also gives them a bigger, deeper, more complete picture of who God is and opens their eyes to where they may see Him!
Storytelling
Another key to helping children look for God is to tell the stories of what God has done, specifically in stories from your faith community, or if you are a parent, in your own family.
I’m reminded that much of the Old Testament was handed down through a storytelling society. In Deuteronomy 6:20, after the verses in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 that we so famously love to use in regards to parents assuming their role as primary spiritual nurturers, it says, “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?’” the response is not “because this is what God said.”
The response is “because listen to all that God has done.” The Israelites knew who God was because they knew first-hand what he had done, they told the stories with God as the hero, and that produced faith for generations. These stories demonstrated the balance of God’s power and His love, His gentleness and His jealousy, and in telling them and passing them along, these children developed a full view of God.
Experiencing Story
To help kids experience the stories of what God has done, you might:
- Pay attention to the language you use when telling your personal stories. Do you make God the hero of your stories? Our family made a big, halfway across the country move when my kids were young—and it easily could have become a sad story focused on moving away from our house and our friends.
But God convicted me to tell the story that He was writing—that God was calling us to a new place to meet and speak the good news of Jesus to new people, and in doing so, my kids learned to look for and name the things God was doing as we made this big move. - Include your kids when you pray for people. Pray for healing or provision for friends, relatives, and people in your faith community, and tell the stories to your kids about how God moves when you pray. Even when the answer is not what you expected, teach them to pray bold prayers and to look for and wait with expectation of God’s movement!
- Remind your kids that, when they have put their faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives in them, leading them and guiding them, and helping them to see how God is working in and around them.
Encourage times when you help your children listen to God and then create something visual out of that listening time, maybe shaping a lump of clay, painting or coloring a picture, or simply forming a shape from a pipe cleaner. By giving them confidence in their own relationship with God, and then encouraging them to express it visually, it will help them to see and point out the ways God is working in their world.
The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus, so guiding our children to hear from and express what the Holy Spirit is speaking allows others to see God in them.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
If we are intentional to help our children see God in their daily lives, they will be those who find wonder, awe, and reverence in the world around them.
Wonder Ink’s 3-year, 52-week children’s ministry curriculum offers kids space to fully find their place in God’s Big Story. Children discover they are Known by God, Loved by Jesus, and Led by the Holy Spirit.
