Raising Kids in Faith: Everyday Opportunities to Point Them to Jesus

Recently, I found myself frustrated with our children’s ministry at church (the details don’t matter), wishing things were different. After bringing my frustrations to God and taking time to reflect, I felt Him reminding me: It’s not the children’s ministry’s job to teach your kids about Me. That’s the task I’ve given you.

It was a hard truth, but one I needed to hear. And just to be clear—I’m not criticizing children’s ministry or the faithful volunteers who serve in it. They are doing beautiful, important work and need our constant prayer and support. But God showed me that I needed to step up in teaching my kids what we believe. That meant coming at it from different angles and being intentional about discipleship at home.

In this article, I want to share what I’ve learned over the years through children’s ministry and eight years of raising kids in the faith—by God’s grace and strength. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Our deepest desire is for our children to walk with Christ every day of their lives. While there’s no guarantee, we can set them on the right path and encourage them to stay the course, even when life gets hard.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 reminds us: “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.” God calls us to make teaching His Word part of our daily lifestyle—not just scheduled lessons, but woven into everyday life.

Through trial, error, and many lessons learned, here are some ways I’ve found to disciple children and help them grow in faith.

Pray For Them

Prayer is essential when it comes to discipling our children. We want our children to know who God is and why we worship Him. Pray for opportunities to disciple your children. Pray for wisdom, for protection, for good teachers and friends. Pray for spiritual development and guidence in their everyday lives. pray for a support network that will also encourage them in their faith. There are so many ways to pray for our children. We need to pray that God will keep them from straying or pray that God will bring them back to Him if they have strayed.

Don't only pray for them, but also pray with them. Show them what a healthy prayer life looks like. When my daughter was young, I made the choice to have my prayer and study time when she was awake. I'm sure part of this was because I was tired and didn't want to get up early, but I'm still glad I made that choice. Many mums choose to get up before their children to spend time with the Lord (and that is also important), but by doing these things in front of our children, we show them what it means to seek the Lord. Having that quiet time before the children get up allows us to pursue God without distraction, but doing it in front of our children allows us to set the example. I encourage you to do both.

Set An Example

Children are immitaters, for better for for worse. Nothing is more embarrassing or hilarious than hearing your words come out of your child's mouth. When my daughter was about 18 months old, her favourite word was "actually" (I'm not kidding, and it was understandable). I never realised how often I used this word until I heard it come out of her mouth. Praise the Lord, the words she was learning from me were good and holy words. But "be careful little mouths what you say".

Because children are such wonderful imitators, especially when they are so young, we can use this as an opportunity to teach them. The most powerful way we teach them isn't through perfectly prepared bible studies or by preaching at them day and night but by simply setting an example. My son is my early riser, and so often, he comes out of his room in the morning and sees me sitting there reading the Word or praying and comes to cuddle with me for a few minutes. Though I may not say a lot to him or push any obvious discipleship on him, he is watching how I live out my faith. We may not see fruit for many years but your children are watching and learning from you. Are you showing them something worth imitating?

Last night, while waiting for my husband in the car, I heard my daughter singing " I love you Lord" over and over just as I often do. She sings a lot, but it wasn't always so; it took until she was about four years old before she started worshipping from her own heart. What brings me great joy is hearing her worship throughout her day. She sings on the way to school, when she is playing in her room or waiting in the car. It comes from her heart and this brings me and the Lord so much joy because we see the fruit of many years of setting an example (even if it was far from perfect)

Discipleship is a long-term project, so don't burn yourself out. Ask God to give you opportunities to disciple your children. Don't force opportunities, but also don't become complacent. God will show you many ways to teach your children about God and show them how to live a life that brings glory and honour to Him.

Earlier today I was walking with my daughter to pick up my son from kindergarten. Along the way, the topic of being like Jesus came up. We spoke about the fruits of the spirit and I gave her examples of how we can be gentle with our words and demostrate patience and joy in her life. I gave her the example of being joyful even when things dont go her way. Or how to speak gently to her brother (no matter how annoying he is being). These spontanious moments are such an important part of discipling our children but we must also plan moments to that we can be prepared to teach more intentionally.

Make it a lifestyle

Last week I ordered myself a prayer folder/war binder (whatever you want to call it) and some pretty Christian stickers. Of course, my kids were all excited when the package came, and they saw the small purple folder and pretty stickers. They were so excited and I found myself telling them "no, these are mum's stickers" not wanting to share the things I bought for myself (I don't buy many things for myself and I find I often have to set firm boundries with my kids) but then I felt the Spirit saying, teach them. The next day I took a few minutes, opened up the sticker and gave them a few blank pages. I allowed them to choose a few stickers and explained what a prayer folder was and how I planned to use it. As they sat at the dinner table, I went in the kitchen and began to pray over the points that were slowly filling the pages. My prayer time was interrupted a lot that morning but I thanked God for the opportunity to disciple my children. I may not have felt so thankful (we all fight against our flesh sometimes but even thinking back on it a few moments later, I was glad I listened to the Spirit, even when my flesh didn't want to.

Make it engaging

Kids don’t learn the same way adults do. While we may enjoy an hour-long sermon, children learn best through hands-on, interactive, and fun experiences. Think of a kindergarten classroom—bright, colorful, filled with projects and activities. That’s how kids engage!

When I read the story of Jonah to my children, I shake them around on the bed during the storm and when the whale spits Jonah out, I take them in my arms and throw them on the bed. They laugh and I have to do it at least two or three times with each of them. When I tell the story of David, I get my son to be David and I pretend to be the Giant and I put on a big scary giant voice. I make sure the stories make them laugh but there is always a quick lesson at the end. When we are talking of Jonah, "what did we learn from Jonah?" "you better do what God says or you'll get swallowed by a whale!" Close enough.

All this excitement is used to teach our children. We need teach them in a way that is interesting and exciting (and relevant to them). But don't worry, it isnt as hard as it might sound! And we live in a world with so many creative and wonderful believers that you just need to know where to look. We dont need to re-invent the wheel, we just need to know where the wheel is and how to use it.

Use Helpful Resources

Through many years of raising children I have found some fantastic resources that may help you to teach your kids about the Word and our faith. if you are looking for some new resources or need some inspiration, check out some of these. I pray they will help you to teach your kids and grow their faith.

1. Pinterest

   I love pinterest for activity ideas, colouring sheets, craft ideas and verse art. My kids recently did a lesson on Joshua and the Walls of Jericho and I was able to find a print out of the walls that the kids could colour in and cut out and create their own walls. Now I can sit with them and ask them about Joshua and they can both repeat back the story in a suprising amount of detail.

2. Spotify

   Spotify is a great place to access worship music and I'm sure you are already using it for your own worship music but Spotify also have a lot of christian kid's podcasts. My kids love; Cotton Wood Trails, Veggie Tales and Air Ship Genesis. These podcasts all teach the kids bible stories and lessons in a fun, creative (and often silly) way. There are a lot of other podcasts available and of course plenty of wonderful worship (both for kids and adults).

3. AI/Chat GPT

   Now this is one we need to be cautious with but AI can actually be a fantastic tool when teaching your kids about the bible. But be cautios. Because AI is simply a computer programme, we need to make sure that it lines up with scripture (this is why its so important to study the bible yourself so you can see when AI is not in line with biblical truth). However, AI can be really helpful when it comes to setting up bible lesson plans for your kids and can be a great source of inspiration for craft ideas and lesson structure.

4. Youtube

   We all use Youtube for so many different things but its also a great place to find christian kids programmes that will help teach them about our faith. I often use these as part of my kids' bible lesson plans I put together on Sundays. We often use; Bible Adventures, Veggie Tales (not always scripturally accurate but entertaining and a great lead-in to telling the real story), Kids on the Move and Superbook. I advise you though, if you are using these as a bible lesson resource (not just entertainment) to read through the relevant passage first and watch the video on your own first to see how it lines up with Scripture. If it does deviate, make sure you are comfortable with the deviations and follow up with your kids by either explaining or reading what the bible says. Some people will not teach with resources like Veggie Tales as they feel it deviates too far from the bible but that is your choice. i still let my kids watch (because its funny and engaging), I just make sure they know what the bible says. If we become overly focused on accuracy (though this is very important), we can make it hard to engage our kids and that is the key to learing.

Final Thoughts

Raising children in the faith is a lifelong journey, and we won’t do it perfectly. But with God’s strength, we can model, teach, and encourage our kids to walk with Him daily.

I don’t have it all figured out, but I pray these ideas encourage you as you disciple your children. Remember—this work isn’t just for the church or children’s ministry. It starts with us, in our homes, one moment at a time.