Raising Apologists
I wrote before about different ways we as parents can approach raising our children to be more grounded in the doctrines of the Bible and hence, more “apologetic” as they get older.
I also addressed and listed some excellent Bible verses that teach the deity of Jesus Christ. The question is, what are the other doctrines that we need to teach to our children?
In this post, I’m going to make a list of the main doctrines I feel children should know. (This is not a complete list. But I think it’s enough to get started on.) Because of the immense scope of each doctrine, I will not address each one individually here. I will save each doctrine for its own post. But this will be something to get the ol’ wheels turning!
- The Doctrine of the Bible
- The Doctrine of God
- The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
- The Doctrine of Salvation
I don’t want to be redundant, but obviously this is not an all-inclusive list. There are doctrines that need to be covered, but only after the ones mentioned above have been taught.
Before I conclude, I want to encourage you to not get overwhelmed. This is why I’ve tried to keep it simple. (By the way, there is a reason we have them for approximately eighteen years! We do have time.)
Dale and Jonalyn Fincher. Parents. Apologists. Photo Courtesy of www.soulation.org
There are apologists out there that are not only teaching others about Jesus, but incorporating the same training at home. We can do the same. We need to do the same. I don’t want to harp on what I’ve already said elsewhere, but God is not going to ask your pastor if he trained your children. He’s going to ask you and every other parent that is His child.
I’m looking forward to delving deeper into the doctrine of the Bible!
Please, leave a comment if you have any ideas that we can use in teaching our children!
Teaching Jesus to the Kiddos (Revisited)
I am revisiting this post because I wanted to actually include the verses that can be used to teach your children about why Jesus is God. So, if you have already read this post, you can just scroll to the bottom for the list. If you haven’t read it, well…you should just read it because I’m such a fabulous writer! 
(I’m just kidding, I hope you know!)
It seems that driving creates great opportunities to talk with my children! I listen to them. They listen to me. I love them so much and as long as I don’t belittle what they say, they will feel free to discuss anything that comes to their mind.
For some reason, though, talking about Jesus with them takes a bit more effort. Am I the only one that feels this way? I am passionate about my Saviour and want to share him with the same effort I have when it comes to talking about books! (Which is none. I love me some books!!).
Why is it then, that I feel like I have to make more of an effort? I think part of it is that Satan doesn’t want me to talk about him. He would rather that I think I have to be in a certain setting to do so. Because if I push Jesus into a little “this-is-the-only-place-where-I-can-talk-about-you” box, I will have successfully communicated to my children that this is a religion, not a relationship. It will become a list of do’s and don’t's. It will become…boring.
So, in our car ride, I decided we would learn a Bible verse. I first asked them if they believed that Jesus is God.
Well, of course, they do!
“But, do you know any verses that say he is?”
“No,” they couldn’t think of any.
“Okay. Let’s learn one!” I said. And so it began. We are learning the verses that state clearly that Jesus is God. It was a wonderful opportunity to explain that we can say Jesus is God to someone else, but if we don’t have a Bible verse to back it up, it won’t matter to that person. The Bible is that powerful!
If you want to join me on this journey of teaching Jesus to our children, all you need to do is click on the links and it will take you straight to the verses! Easy peasy!
There are more verses, but I think this is a good start! If you want to read more about the other verses that teach Jesus’ deity, go to Got Questions.org. It’s an excellent resource for any questions you may have. (This site is where I obtained the verses I included in this post.)
I would love to hear how you teach Jesus to your children! The more ideas we get, the better!
Mothers. Apologists. Are They Synonymous?
Apologist. Kind of a scary word, isn’t it? It sounds so intellectual. It can be; however, it’s not that far out of reach. You don’t need a degree in philosophy to be an apologist. Obviously, if you want to grow and learn more, a degree would serve you well. But, for this context, just a bit of studying will enable you to be a better one.
What does apologetics mean? “Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία (apologia), “speaking in defense”) is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information. ” (apologia, my addition)[1]
It really is quite simple. It is defending what we believe. It is doing what we’ve been commanded to do in I Peter 3:15: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”
Did you notice the word “reason?” This is not just an emotional topic, although it can be. It is also intellectual. The problem I’ve begun to notice, though, is that a lot of adults could not tell you why they believe in the Jesus of the Bible as opposed to the Jesus of the Mormons. Why is this? Did the youth pastor not do his job in teaching them? What about the pastor? Did he not do his job either?
Whether they did their jobs or not is not the issue. Frankly, God never said that it was the youth pastor’s job to train our children in defending the faith. It is our job as parents, to do this. The question is, how? When?
Mothers are busy. Training children to obey, teaching them how to take responsibility, doing laundry, cleaning, wiping noses, cleaning, cooking, baking. Did I say cleaning? You get the idea. It seems that many times I collapse into bed happy that everyone is still in one piece!
Me and my precious children
Unfortunately, it is easy to get lost in the grind of everyday living and forget that there is a bigger purpose to parenting. God has given us our children to train them for him. If we fail in this area, then we will have failed completely. Even if my child grows up to be kind, thoughtful, and a hard worker, it won’t matter if they don’t know God and go into eternity without him.
(I am not saying that children shouldn’t be taught manners and the value of hard work. The more they are able to do this, the more they will be open to listening about Jesus. It all goes hand-in-hand.)
Just a side note. There is a lot of nonsense going around that a woman shouldn’t lead in family devotions, or what have you. It is thought that all of this is the man’s job. Believe me, nothing could be further from the truth! When we stand before God, he’s not going to say, “Well, honey, it’s okay that you didn’t teach your children about me. It was, after all, your husband’s job.” Should our husbands teach our children about God? Definitely! But whether or not they are, we just need to keep in the forefront of our mind that they are our children, too. Just do it. Their eternity depends on it.
Okay, I’m finished with that rabbit trail!
The question is, how do we do this in our already busy day? And what topics do we need to teach?
Here are some ideas on when and how to teach your children:
1. Pick a topic that you would like to teach, and learn, if you need to. (I will cover the subject of topics in the next few posts.) Write down the verses that go with each one on a 3×5 card and memorize these with your children.
2. Talk about it while you’re driving to the grocery store, while you’re cleaning the house together, or doing any other activity. It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out lesson, just a short and sweet thought.
So, I find that the answer to the title of this post is, yes, mothers and apologists are synonymous!
In my next post I’m going to talk about what I believe to be the most important doctrine of all:
The deity of Jesus Christ.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologetics
