Help Children Develop an Accurate View of God - God Loves Them!

Yesterday I said; "The world we live in; the one the children in our ministries - and in our families - are growing up in, is a confusing and difficult place. Today the children in our ministries (and families) often grow up with working moms, single parents, divorce and sporadic church attendance. They also grow up with a knowledge of things I did not know about until I was a teen - or older. Children are exposed to so many things; things which were not talked about when I was a child. The world is not the same. The idea we can all do whatever we want to do because being 'happy' is the most important thing."

I asked, "How do we help children develop an accurate view of God in a world where they have anything but an accurate view of Him?" and I talked about three things we need to be intentional about teaching children, beginning with helping children know God loves them.

I do believe it is essential for children to not just know, but to fully believe God loves them. We can not just assume children know this; we need to encourage children with this truth every opportunity we can. Consider the following ways we can do this -

• With my grandsons, I tell them often how much I love them. I also tell them God loves them all the time even more than I do. I believe we can do this with the children in our ministries, too. We can tell them how we love them and God loves them even more. 
• When we are teaching a Bible event, we can be focused on tying it in to God's love and great grace.
• We can select verses in the Bible to make classroom posters with and then hang them around the room so children "see" reminders of God's love.
• We can be intentional about sharing examples from our lives of how God shows His great love to us.
• We can provide opportunities for children to share examples of how God shows His great love to and for them.
• We could make a "wall - or poster - of 'love'" and each week provide time for children - and you - to draw or write how God has shown His love to you in the previous week.

These are just a few ideas, but the important thing is for us to be focused and intentional about communicating to the children in our ministries how very much God loves them.

How do you do this?