Learning about Jesus doesn’t happen just on Sunday morning. It doesn’t have to be scheduled into your day or week. We want our children to learn about Him from a young age, to see He is accessible, available and full of love! Teach your children about Jesus from the heart, your heart so they can see His love through you!

I’m not going to get into the trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) because we don’t need to complicate things for kids but there are some basic ways we can ensure our children understand who Jesus is and why He is so important! And more than that, feel the love He has for them.

How to Teach Your Children About Jesus

Songs

“Jesus loves me, this I know!” There is a reason why this Bible song is one of the first that children learn. It’s simple and it explicitly says Jesus loves little ones and we know that because of the Bible.

There are so many other children’s songs that teach about God’s love, His strength and ultimately Jesus!

Music is a gift from God, something that everyone can enjoy. Easy melodies help us remember words and eventually scriptures and children love to do hand actions or dance around.

So when teaching your children about Jesus, start with those easy songs. Sing them to your baby as a lullaby, let them become part of the repertoire that your toddlers and older kids sing on repeat.

Some fun songs kids love: This Little Light of Mine, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Running Over, I Got the Joy!, What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Jesus’ Love

I think the most important thing we need to explicitly teach our children is the love Jesus has for them.

Teach your children about Jesus…which means teach your children about His love. These two things go hand in hand, Jesus is love, love means Jesus!

The best way for them to learn about His love is to see it in action. Children learn from activity, from doing things and from interacting with those around them. When they see you acting out Jesus’ love, even if they don’t consciously realize what it is, it becomes part of who they are.

The way you speak (yes, taming your tongue), the way you care for them, speak their love language and steward your home all speaks to the love Jesus has for you. And you can talk about this as you are doing these things! Thank Jesus for His love, talk to your children about how He fills everyone’s love cups to overflowing.

And when your children see you reading your Bible, praying and talking to them about how Jesus loves everyone, they start to build a sense of trust and faith. As parents, especially moms, we are the safe space for our children, the person who will make the world right again and if they see that mom’s love comes from Jesus, they start to search for that love themselves.

Make Jesus Accessible

One of the wonderful things about our Lord and Saviour is how accessible He is! He said “Let the little children come to me!” (Matthew 19:14) He wants children to know Him, to seek Him and to share in His covenant. When you teach your children about Jesus you are planting seeds that will grow trees with deeps roots.

Making Him accessible means making Him part of your everyday life. It’s saying audible prayers of thanksgiving when the sun is shining, reminding your children God gave us the sun and His Son! It’s encouraging your children to use gentle words, like Jesus did. It’s praying over your space and having your children pray with you.

The tough part about Jesus’ story is His death and resurrection. Especially for young children when death can be a difficult concept to grasp. The road Jesus walked to get to the cross wasn’t pretty and while we need to understand this to grasp the importance of it, we also don’t want to scare our little ones!

We still make the story accessible, we just have to adjust the details to the age level.

Death & Resurrection Explanation By Age

Toddlers: Basic understanding that Jesus loves them, died and rose again.

Preschooler: Jesus loves them and endured some painful experiences for us so we don’t have to go through it ourselves. He overcame death and rose again! (Check out my post about Lent activities to make a “Kindness Crown” and talk about Jesus’ crown of thorns)

School-Aged Children: Jesus took all the bad things we did, and had them nailed to the cross. He died so we don’t get punished for our sins. His resurrection is proof that He is greater than anything in this world and tells us how much He loves us!

These are simple explanations but as your children grow and mature you can go into more detail about what Jesus experienced and how His love overcame even death.

For activities you can do leading up to Easter as a way to remember everything Jesus did, grab my free download from “Holy Week Activities“

Bible Stories

Why is Bible stories last you ask? Shouldn’t we be starting with Bible stories?

Yes and no. Should our children interact with the Bible from an early age? Absolutely! But young children don’t have the attention span to sit down and listen to long stories. Even short stories can be lost on them.

Children learn from doing. So think of creative ways to teach your children about Jesus that enable them to get up and move around.

Teaching Bible Stories with Movement

• Act out stories (Jesus calms the storm, Jesus feeds the 10 000, Jonah Fingers, walls of Jericho, Noah’s Ark etc)

• Go for a walk and talk about creation

• Make bread and explain how Jesus is the bread of life
• Talk about what a good friend looks like, talk about how Jesus is the best friend we could ask for!

As your children get older you can read more Bible stories. Read and reread so they know them by heart.

A word of caution (coming from a mom who limits screen time), while movies and shows can be a great way to teach your children about Jesus, don’t rely on this as the only source of education for them. Screens don’t allow for interaction, children can’t ask questions or seek deeper understanding behind what they see. When you are interacting with them, acting out stories or reading them, they can point to pictures, you can elaborate and even break into other related Bible stories.

More than anything, when you spend time with your children you are pouring love into them and ultimately, that is what Jesus wants. That is how they learn how to love, through example!

Check out these great toddler friendly Bible Stories “My Little Library: Stories of Jesus” available on Amazon.

Jesus Is With You Always!

When you teach your children about Jesus you teach them that He is with them always. When they accept Him into their heart they are giving their life to Him and in return gaining a friend who will never leave them…a friend who is closer than a brother! (Proverbs 18:24)

More than anything, the best way to teach your children about Jesus is to live a life for Him. I often say “I’m having my coffee and Jesus,” and it’s more than a catch phrase, it’s a lifestyle. Jesus is the bread of life, the person I walk with and I make it known to my family how important He is in my life.

I don’t pressure my kids, I want to inspire them to seek Him, I want to give them no reason not to have faith. I want them to have no doubt in their mind that Jesus is with them always!

And that, mama, is the best way to teach your children about Jesus!

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