Some years ago I noticed that a particular family had dropped out of church. So, I made some inquiries concerning them. I found out that one of their children was an excellent young soccer player. His particular soccer league had scheduled their games for Sunday mornings. So, the parents and the child had a choice to make—whether to attend Sunday School and church or participate in a soccer league. They chose soccer. Just think of the tragic lesson that child learned about priorities in his life. Just imagine how hard it would be for that child to unlearn that lesson at some future time and allow Christ and his church to come first in his life.
How incredibly important it is that we give children strong spiritual and moral foundations! Did you know that during the next hour, somewhere in America, 138 children will run away from home, 76 children will be tragically abused, and 9 children will be arrested for drug offenses? This is what happens in our nation every hour of every day. (1)
The childhood years are vitally important when it comes to spiritual influences. The respected Christian sociologist George Barna reminds us that most Christians come to faith before they are 18 years of age. (2) If they have not received Christ by the time they leave high school, the chances of their accepting Him as their Lord and Savior are very slim, 6 percent to be exact. (3)
So, we all share a vital stake in influencing children toward Christ. This includes parents, grandparents, and all others who care about the Kingdom of God and about America. Let me invite you to consider the example of an old man named Eli who reared a young boy named Samuel to become a great prophet of Israel.
The story of Samuel actually begins with a godly mother named Elkanah. She was terribly sad because she and her husband were childless. So when she made her annual trip to the high holy place at Shiloh, she promised God that if he gave her a child she would dedicate him to the Lord’s service. She became pregnant and the baby Samuel was born. True to her word, as soon as she weaned him, she brought him to the old priest Eli at Shiloh and placed the boy under his care. Each year when she returned to Shiloh, she would bring Samuel a new robe.
Eli was well along in years and almost blind, but he was a wonderful foster parent for Samuel. His own sons had disappointed him, so perhaps he saw in Samuel another chance to be an effective foster-parent. As we look at the interaction between God and Eli and Samuel in chapter 3, we discover some excellent lessons in how to introduce a child to God. Those four lessons are printed in your bulletin.
First, teach your child that he or she is a gift from God. Don’t you know that Elkanah, Samuel’s mother, told him again and again how she had asked God for a child? As soon as he could understand her words, she probably said, “Son, you are a miracle child! I asked the Lord for a child and he gave me you.”
Your child is a gift from God and he or she should know that. Teach your child that God designed him or her, that he or she was God’s idea even before the parents knew a child was on the way.
Parents, have you told your child how you discovered that you are a child of God? Have you shared with your child your personal relationship with God? If not, why not? No preacher can do that for you. No Sunday School teacher can do that for you.
Remember also, parents, that your child does not belong to you. He or she is just on loan to you. You have the privilege and responsibility to rear this child in a godly way, answerable always to the one who created your child. Treasure your children for what they are, not for what you want them to be.
Here is the second lesson in how to introduce your child to God—Teach your child to expect to hear God's "still, small, voice." Old Eli did that quite well for Samuel. He taught the boy that God speaks and we should listen for him. The voice that Samuel heard was so real that he thought that Eli was calling. I have never heard God speaking in such an audible fashion. However, I have certainly received messages from God. Teach your child to listen for God’s messages planted in the heart in a non-verbal way.
The old prophet Elijah met God on a mountain one day. He experienced a mighty wind on the mountain and then an earthquake, but God did not speak through all that power. Instead, after all that was passed, God spoke in a “still, small voice” or a “gentle whisper.” Teach your child that God whispers to the souls of those believers who are attentive.
A little girl named Sue wrote this letter to God: “Dear God, Why do I have to pray when you know anyway what I want? But I’ll do it if it makes you feel better. Love, Sue.” (4) Sue’s Mom and Dad should teach her that prayer is not just telling God what you want. Part of prayer is listening. God can send messages even in the midst of silence, especially in the midst of silence.
Here is the third lesson in how to introduce a child to God: Teach your child that God's way is always best. Not always the most pleasant way, not always the easiest way, not always our preferred way, but always the best way. Old Eli affirmed that truth in verse 18 even when the news from God was terrible for his own family. Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”
Most of us ministers do lots of counseling. But seldom do we dispense some kind of superior wisdom. You folks are as smart as we clergy and often are better informed. Pastoral counseling is really a process of helping people get in touch with God’s wisdom. The best place on earth to be is in the middle of God’s will.
I liked this letter to God from a little girl named Joyce: “Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. Love, Joyce.” (5)
We adults can understand Joyce’s frustration. Often we ask for one thing but receive another. Only later do we understand that God knew best. So, in the meantime, we just have to trust him.
When your child comes to you with a problem, use a two-step process. Give your best wisdom. Then say, “Let’s pray about that matter right now and ask God to give us some help with it.”
Here is the fourth and final lesson in how to introduce a child to God: Teach your child to feed on God's Word. Notice the final words of our Scripture lesson for today—“God revealed himself to Samuel through his word.” God still does.
Does your child ever see you reading the Bible? If not, why not? Your example is stronger than your admonition.
When our boys were small, we had lots of those Bible story books with all the pictures. They would pick out which one Mom or Dad would read at bedtime. Then we would fix our hands and pray together. Finally they got old enough to read for themselves. We gave them a copy of the Living Bible paraphrase for children. By that time, their bedtime habit of reading God’s word was fixed.
Have you seen any of those “God Speaks” billboards out on the highways? One of them asked, “Have you read my # 1 best-seller? There will be a test. (signed) God.”
If your child is comfortable and friendly with God’s word, he or she has a source of wisdom greater than the sum total of everything on the Internet.
Let me close with a story from a great professor of preaching, Dr. Fred Craddock. Dr. Craddock tells about being in a small diner in the Smokey Mountains one day. A friendly man had just finished his meal at the adjacent table. Noticing that Dr. Craddock was alone, he eased over to his table. He pointed out the window and said, “See that mountain over there. Let me tell you a story about a boy from over there. He was born to an unwed mother. In this part of the country, family means everything. The first question people would ask you is about who your parents are. So this boy had a hard time growing up. He had no daddy. And when folks would ask him, “Son, who is your daddy?” he felt terrible. But he had a good mother who raised him in the church. He loved the Lord and was baptized. But still that awful question about his daddy bothered him deeply.
When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. This new preacher, aided by the discernment of the Holy Spirit, sensed that the boy’s problem was not just shyness, but that there was something beneath it. One day the preacher visited the boy’s house. As he approached the house, the boy was on the porch by himself. The preacher said, “Son, what’s your name? Remind me who you are.” And then, before the boy could say a word, the preacher added, “Wait a minute. I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.” With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, “Son, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.”
With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time. He was never the same again. From then on, whenever anyone asked about who his daddy was, he would say, “I’m a child of God.”
Then the man telling the story got up and said, “It so happens that I was the boy I was telling you about. If that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything.” And then he walked away.
Well, Dr. Craddock was so impressed by that man that he called the waitress over and asked who he was. She replied, “Everybody around here knows him. That’s Ben Hooper. He used to be the governor of Tennessee.”
Parents, you will try to do many good things for your children because you love them. You will try to keep them safe and healthy. You will try to give them an excellent education. You will try to discipline them so that they will learn self-control. But your greatest legacy to your child is to lead him or her to claim their true identity as a child of God. May God bless and guide you in that great endeavor.
(1) Moore, James W., Attitude is Your Paintbrush, (Dimensions for Living: Nashville, 1998), p. 49.
(2) Barna, George, Evangelism That Works, (Regal: Ventura, CA, 1995), p. 44.
(3) Barna, George, Grow Your Church From the Outside, (Regal: Ventura, CA, 2002), p. 163.
(4) From “Children’s Letters to God,” compiled by Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall.
(5) Ibid.
Dr. Bill Bouknight, 4488 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN 38117.
Copyright in progress. www.cumcmemphis.org