How to Share God's Faithfulness with Kids

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1 (NLT)

God is faithful. His faithfulness is the foundation of the story of Scripture and He never fails to keep His promises.

I have a vivid memory from middle school that could have shaped my understanding of faithfulness. I was an insecure girl who desperately wanted everyone to choose me as their friend. One day, when one of my peers came into science class and saw that I was sitting next to her friend. She said to me, “If you’ll change seats with me, I’ll be your best friend.”

Obviously, I jumped at the opportunity to be a best friend to this girl. She was popular and she chose me. This girl made a promise to me, right? A covenant of faithfulness that I could count on. A covenant (or promise) is a contract between two people that is to be kept. It is something we should be able to depend upon.

But ultimately, while I had nothing against her, we never became best friends. Her promise was not one that she intended to keep. She was not faithful to her covenant. Merriam-Webster defines faithfulness as “firm in adherence to promises” and “steadfast in affection or allegiance (loyal).”

It is imperative that [children] see that God is reliable, that He is faithful.

This experience could have shaped my idea of faithfulness in a way that impacted my belief in the faithfulness of people, and more importantly God. But even though I was young, I knew who God was. I knew He was faithful. He was and still is my rock in seasons of my life where nothing else seems dependable.

two girl friends smiling with arms around each other on the playground — Credit:Getty Images/iStock/Getty Images Plus/WhitneyLewisPhotography

Teaching Kids about God’s Faithfulness

This is the foundation we need our children to have. It is imperative that they see that God is reliable, that He is faithful. “…that the Lord [their] God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps His covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love Him and obey His commands.” (Deut. 7:9 NLT)

And for our children to understand and believe this, we must first understand and believe it.

We live in a world today where we take commitments lightly “just in case something better comes along” (also called FOMO). And a world where kids make “pinky-promises” that will likely be forgotten because they don’t fully understand what it means to keep a promise. The world is not modeling that very well. But God’s promises are forever. He is “firm in adherence to promises.” He is “steadfast in affection.” He. Is. Faithful.

Trusting in God’s faithfulness is essential to the hope we have for our eternal future. So how can we, as parents and ministry leaders, teach children about God’s faithfulness in a way that they can understand it?

We must take them to Scripture and remind them that the Bible is true because it’s God’s words. We must show them God’s faithfulness through the stories they are likely already familiar with but may not realize are connected. Because the Bible is so big, and has so many stories, we must connect the stories together to show them how God started with a very specific plan and promise and is still keeping that promise today.

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.

Here are three specific passages in Scripture you can use to emphasize God’s faithfulness.

One: Creation and the Fall

When we teach the creation story, we must start with emphasizing that because God made the world, He is in charge. But He is a good God, and He made everything good.

But when the serpent deceived Adam and Eve and sin and evil entered the world, God made a promise to the serpent in Genesis 3:15. He said, “I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike His heel.”

That may sound funny or be hard to understand, but what God told the serpent was that He would send His own Son as a child born to defeat Satan and bring salvation for all people from the sin that Satan brought into the world.

God’s promise at the beginning was to send Jesus. And four thousand years later, He fulfilled that promise when Jesus was born to die on a cross to pay for all the sins of the world. Ask the children, “Do you think you could keep a promise for four thousand years? That’s a really, really, long time.”

He made everything good.

Two: Noah and the Rainbow

The story of Noah’s ark is a favorite of children. There have been many picture books written to depict this epic event. God’s requirement of Noah to build a boat in the desert shows Noah’s faith in God. God’s miracle of bringing all the animals two-by-two to the ark to live together in harmony for just over a year. What a sight that would have been to see.

The miracle of the complete destruction of the world with water yet saving Noah and his family because they were the only people on earth who had faith in God. But when they got off the boat, God made a promise, a covenant with Noah. He promised to never to destroy the earth again by flood. And He gave Noah a visible sign as a reminder of His promise.

He put a “bow” in the sky. We call it a rainbow. We see it when the sun begins to shine after a rainstorm. And I don’t know about you, but a rainbow never fails to cause me to be in awe of its beauty. What a simple tool to remind children of the faithfulness of God.

We can see with our own eyes God’s faithfulness as He continues to adhere to the covenant He made with Noah thousands of years ago.

preschool kids raising their hands while sitting on the floor — Credit:Getty Images/iStock/Getty Images Plus/monkeybusinessimages

Three: A Worship Response with Psalm 136

Psalm 136 is a beautiful song of God’s faithfulness. It was written as a reminder of many of the ways God was faithful to His people. Repetition and recitation of Scripture is a concrete way to teach our children about God.

God is faithful. His faithfulness is the foundation of the story of Scripture and He never fails to keep His promises.

Use Psalm 136 as a worship response.

You can use as many verses as you like, but at least the first five. Read the first line of each verse out loud to the kids and then ask the kids to respond by repeating the second line of each verse.