Hope for Raising Preschoolers to Be Lifelong Christ Followers

I’ve read the Bible to my son and daughter since the day they were born. Our poor The Jesus Storybook Bible has really seen better days. It’s in pretty rough condition.

My kids have memorized Scripture since they were three years old. They will ramble off a verse at the least expected times. It fills my heart with joy to know it really does seem to be taking root.

We attend church as a family nearly every Sunday.

If I’m being honest, I wish that these things guaranteed that my children will put their faith in Jesus and follow Him their whole lives. I want it to be like a simple equation:

Church Attendance + Bible Knowledge + Parent’s Prayers = Child Knows Jesus

However, we’re not guaranteed anything like that. We have to trust that the Holy Spirit will move and work in our kids’ lives in His timing. That’s tough for me! Maybe I’m the only one.

Hope for the future is found in faith in Jesus Christ. As a parent or preschool teacher, this means we lead the preschoolers in our care toward a saving knowledge of Jesus. We put our hope in Jesus, teach our preschoolers about Jesus, share the hope of Him with them, and pray that each child chooses a hope-filled life following Jesus as Lord.

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6 ESV). Our hope is just that. By teaching Bible verses and stories, together with the prayers we pray over our preschoolers, we hope that they grow a solid foundation of the truth — Jesus Christ as Lord — in their lives. Our hope and desire is that the foundation of Jesus will hold them steady when nothing else seems firm or constant.

I pray as Isaiah 55:11 shares, that His Word will not return void.

I know those lightbulb moments will happen when the Holy Spirit intends. Our job is to be faithful and teach the hope of Jesus. And then trust that the fruit will be produced in the right season.

Pray:

Jesus, help us to be faithful as we teach our preschoolers, our own kids, about You and Your Word. Guide their hearts through the verses they memorize and the stories they hear from the Bible. Please reveal Yourself to them. Draw them near to You. I pray they would choose to follow You at a young age and continue choosing to follow You their whole lives, that they would live a hope-filled life in Jesus. Amen.