We have been reading a story from “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” along with a story every night before bed.
I highly recommend this book because the pictures in it (at least the version that we have) are excellent works of art, the stories are short, and it asks simple questions after each story that my little four-year olds can understand.
Tonight’s story was about Samuel anointing Saul to become King of Israel.
It had this picture of Samuel pouring oil on Saul’s head.
As soon as I read, “Samuel is pouring oil on the head of a young man whose name is Saul,” MC’s eyes grew huge and she immediately said, “THAT was NOT NICE!!”
I guess by all outside appearances, it would appear to be a “not nice” thing to do.
I could barely keep it together to read the rest of the story because of laughing. But I forged ahead.
We had an opportunity to discuss sin at the end of the story. After I read, “Saul’s heart has sin in it. That means that Saul will do wrong things,” Keith and I were able explain to the girls and Will what sin is.
We used Child Evangelism Fellowship’s definition that “Sin is anything that we think, say, or do that makes God unhappy.”
I proceeded to ask MC if she ever did any of these things, or sinned, and she responded that yes, she did.
Many young children immediately respond that no, they never do anything wrong, so I probed a little further.
When I asked her to give me an example she shared that when she sits in her brother’s frog chair and he doesn’t want her to do that it’s sin.
I was pleased that she has some kind of recognition that she is a sinner.
It is one of the first steps to realizing our need for Christ.
I’m not saying that she is at that point yet, nor am I going to push her, but I do believe it is imperative that we have these discussions with our children.
They need to hear us, their parents, reading and explaining the Bible to them, weather it is through day to day experiences that we have, prayer times, or in family devotions.
LifeAtTheCircus says
I fully agree with you. I loved when you said, “I was pleased that she has some kind of recognition that she is a sinner. It is one of the first steps to realizing our need for Christ.” How right you are. Jesus came not for the righteous but the unrighteous and it is our job to show our children daily our and their need for a Savior.
The oil anecdote is quite sweet! 🙂
Uma says
I need MC to have a word with Big Wil about how pouring water over someone’s head, especially when that someone is sleeping or caught off guard, is, indeed, not nice. You guys are doing a wonderful job raising those beautiful children!
homegrownstrawberries says
that’s wonderful! Its so great to see that beginning of recognition for our need of Christ in our children!