7 Biblical Truths to Teach Your Kids

Kids all over the country have headed back to school, and it’s hitting me really hard this year. It’s not all the COVID craziness, though I know children, parents, teachers, and administrators are all having a rough time with our current schooling reality. What’s making it feel real to me this year is that it’s the last year before my E goes off to school himself.

He just misses the age cutoff, and although I’m confident that he’s academically ready for kindergarten, as a teacher I just feel good about giving him one more trip around the sun to let him be a little boy with all day to play and learn on his own terms.

It’s got me thinking though. I have one year left of (relatively) unlimited time to nurture, lead, love, and teach my boy all of the foundational things that he MUST KNOW before he hits the school scene. And you guys, it’s not the 3 R’s (who named them that, anyway?!) that I’m worried about.

I’ve got less than 12 more months to teach him the foundational truths about who he is and where his awesome memory, curiosity, tenacity, oratory skills, kindness, and capacity to love come from.

After this, Disciple Dad and I will no longer be the sole contributors to E’s developing worldview. We’ll be letting teachers and kids from other families have a lot more sway in his life than anyone else has right now. No matter how much we trust his teachers (and we do), it’s definitely a bit scary to think about letting him go. But, God didn’t give us a spirit of fear–He gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7), so I’m challenging myself to lay down my worry (it won’t do me any good anyway), and take the time that I have left to teach my son some life-changing foundational truths that he will need to firmly root his identity in Christ.

7 Bible Promises for Children to Learn

There are so many amazing concepts in the Bible that it is essential for us to teach our little disciples as they grow. This isn’t an exhaustive list, by any means. It’s a starting point, and it’s where I’m focusing my efforts for now, as I pray for the Holy Spirit to bury these truths deep in my little boy’s heart where they can grow with him as he matures in Christ.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

There are so many things that we teach our kids, especially as moms, about their bodies. We teach them (or at least try to teach them) to keep their hands to themselves, to use the potty, to brush their teeth, wash up in the tub or the shower, not to pick their noses, to cover their mouths when they cough, and on and on.

There are plenty of other things we teach them, too, though. Things we don’t necessarily mean to teach them, like how we’re not pretty when we don’t weigh what we want to, or that we can’t leave the house without our makeup on, or that our grey hairs are something to mourn about.

It’s easy to fall into the pattern of teaching our kids (boys AND girls) that we’re unhappy with our bodies or our appearance in general, and I think it’s probably usually unintentional. But it can have some pretty major consequences. Holding ourselves to a subjective standard of beauty/weight/age appearance isn’t healthy for us as parents, and it’s not healthy for our kids, either.

The biblical message is an encouraging one, though. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, by a God whose works are wonderful! Are we perfect? Nope. But we were lovingly created in the image of the God of the universe. He made us, He loves us, and He sees value in us the way we are.

The only way to teach our kids that is to treat the people around us and ourselves like they have inherent beauty, inherent value, just because they are made by God.

Teach your kids Psalm 139:14, but if you really want them to get the message, remember and act on the fact that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, too.

Jesus died for me so that I can live with God forever. John 3:16

The way I see it is that the main goal of Christian parenting is to lead each of our kids into a lifelong saving relationship with Jesus.

Jesus is a friend like no other friend. He volunteered to leave His perfect home to come to a sinful planet, be born to poor, bewildered parents, and live a tough life trying to teach people who didn’t understand, and in many cases who didn’t want to accept, His message. He was betrayed by one of His closest friends, and died a painful death all so that you and me and each of our kids can live forever with Him.

Jesus didn’t want forever without us.

That’s the kind of friend I want my kids to have.

So, when you teach your kids John 3:16, teach them more than just to memorize it. Teach them what it really means. And when it doesn’t sink in, don’t give up. Keep trying, because the truth of John 3:16 is the most important truth our kids can learn. Period.

If God is on my side, it doesn’t matter who’s against me. Romans 8:31

A, my 2-year-old, is going through a phase in which he asks me to tell him the story of David and Goliath every single day, and though I don’t include all of the gory details, the message I am trying to relay to him at this point is that God is bigger, stronger, and mightier than anyone or anything that we come up against.

When we are on God’s side, no one can defeat us. Not really.

That doesn’t mean that nothing bad can happen to us. It doesn’t mean that we’re invincible or impervious to pain or anything like that. But it does mean that God wins in the end, so we do too. Through all of the tough stuff in life, let’s teach our kids to hang on to this promise in our hearts: “If God is for us, then no one can defeat us.”

Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8:38-39

I’m not a huge YouTube person, but every once in awhile I put videos on while I’m washing dishes or cleaning up during nap time…usually when I’m in the depths of despair over some parenting issue my kids are stumping me on. Well, a few months ago I was watching this video about how to get kids to listen without yelling, and before I knew it I had watched a bunch of Live on Purpose videos about parenting. There were some good tips in there, although a lot of it I honestly don’t remember. But one thing that stuck in my mind was one of Dr. Paul Jenkins’ catchphrases, which is that a parent’s job is to remember to love our kids “no matter what and even if.”

And we do, right? We love our kids no matter how they behave and even if they break our stuff. We love our kids no matter how many times we got up with them last night and even if they throw up on our new shoes. We just do. Sometimes we don’t want to be around them (just being honest), and sometimes we don’t exactly like them, but we keep on loving them.

But guess what! God keeps loving our kids even more and even better than we do. Our love is really the best tangible representation of God’s love that our children have, especially in the earliest years, so loving them “no matter what and even if” is really, really important. And, we need to make sure that we tell them early and often that God’s love is the same (except even better). It’s really easy for our kids to get the idea that God only loves them when they’re sweet and obedient. Thankfully, that’s not even close to being true, but do our kids realize it? Does the way we talk to our kids about God more strongly reflect His infinite love or our desire for perfect obedience?

Salvation is a free gift that you can’t earn. Ephesians 2:8-9

Have you ever asked your kids what they need to do if they want to go to heaven?

Try it. The answer may surprise you.

If your kids get it right, that’s awesome!

If they get it wrong, that’s awesome too, because it will give you a great chance to talk about this important biblical truth: nothing we do can get us into Heaven. We can’t do it ourselves. At all. Not even a little bit.

We need Jesus. He’s the one who saves us, and all we have to do is accept His gift by loving Him and believing that what He says is true.

Being good is great. Following God’s law is important. But those things are byproducts of our saving relationship with Christ, not our salvation.

Ask your kids and start maybe the most important conversation you’ve ever had with them.

God has big plans for you. Jeremiah 29:11

Do you daydream about what your kids will do and become when they are older?

Most parents do.

I don’t have professions all picked out for my kids, to be honest, but I do like to imagine what they’d be like as whatever their aspirations are in a given day. E has almost invariably told us that he will be a pastor when he grows up, except for a 2-3 month stint when he shifted over to dreams of becoming a missionary dentist. (He hadn’t realized that missionaries didn’t HAVE to be pastors until he was alerted to the fact in a song.) He’s back at planning to be a pastor, though, and I have to hand it to him–he does his share of preaching and baptizing around here.

Here’s the thing, though: in reality it doesn’t matter what he’s planning to be, or what I hope he’ll be. What really matters is that he understands, deep down in his heart, that God has big plans for him. Whether he’s a neurosurgeon or a bus driver, a programmer or a cashier, a stay-at-home-dad or a missionary dentist, his purpose and identity is greater than that of his job or profession.

Hiding the message of Jeremiah 29:11 in our kids’ hearts will help them understand that they can work for God no matter what their jobs are. Whether they’ve got 6 digit salaries or they are working for minimum wage, they are specifically a part of God’s plan, and God’s plan for them is amazing.

Character is more important than how we look. 1 Samuel 16:7

Right now my 3 and 4 year old boys don’t really care at all what they look like. They have barely any sense of what’s acceptable and what’s not very cool when it comes to what they wear, how their hair looks, or even having food all over their faces. Just this morning I had to tell E that sweatpants pulled over cowboy boots wasn’t going to work out, and A has no issues whatsoever with showing off his belly to anyone at any time.

Of course I step in when we’re in danger of breaching basic etiquette, or when my (admittedly underdeveloped) fashion sense demands, but despite the fact that sometimes I wish that my kids knew how to match their clothes a little better, I’m actually very thankful that they don’t care much about how they look. Yes, being clean, fit, and basically attractive should matter to them, but beyond that, I don’t want them to care too much about their clothes, their haircuts, or how big around their arms are.

As they grow older, and inevitably pay more attention to the way they and the people around them look, I want my kids to really understand and internalize the idea that what is in their hearts is much more important than what they look like, what they wear, or how anyone else sees them. Not only that, but I want them to realize that the same is true about how they “see” others.

I’m trying, with prayer and intentionality, to raise boys who worry less about what their friends (and, in the future, girlfriends and wives) look like or how “cool” they are, and more about the character of the people with whom they surround themselves, because it works both ways, right?

Teaching my kids the truth of 1 Samuel 16:7, that “the Lord looks at the heart” is one step in the right direction. As parents, we can place a high value on character and heart change and deemphasize outward appearances and inauthentic gestures. Let’s help our kids learn to focus on what really matters!

Help your children hide God’s Word in their hearts.

Whether your kids are nearing school age, like mine, or have already started–no matter where your family is in life, it’s always the right time to tuck Bible promises from the Living God into the hearts and minds of our kids.

Let’s help our children build the foundations of their lives–self-image, self-worth, character, and all on the Giver of All Things. Start with these 7 promises, and then help them go looking through the Bible for more exciting and uplifting truths to hide in their hearts.

What’s your favorite Bible promise to teach your children? I’d love for you to share in the comments below. Let’s be inspired by God’s Word!