How to Answer Our Children’s Doubts About God

How can we equip our children and other youth with confidence of the truth? That should be the most popular question today as the church seeks answers to why young adults end up leaving the church.

Many Christians live life with blind faith. You know the ones–they love God and believe in his truth without digging into deeper questions about what this truth looks like. It’s great to live life fully trusting in the Lord but can we explain this dependence to our children so that they will understand WHY we believe in the Lord’s promises.

Kids today have much more courage in asking some tough questions about life. As adults it’s our duty to be able to explain why we depend on God and why Jesus is our hope in an evil world.

The first question all parents and adults need to ask themselves is how much do I know about the Bible. We live in a fast paced world where social media sites like twitter will only give you a 140 character limit and we read these twitter posts and think we are spiritually filled. But when I say we must read the bible I am really asking when is the last time you’ve made a daily habit of reading the bible?

When you read the bible you are reading first hand accounts of how God used people to fulfill his will–you are reading amazing testimonies of how God used ordinary people. These are people that would be remembered forever and all for the glory of God’s kingdom. These are examples of what God can do in impossible situations. That is something we all can relate to and something our children will ask us about.

There are some amazing men and women who loved the Lord and serve as great reminders of what it looks like to obediently follow and trust the Lord. Some of these men and women were not the smartest or the most well off financially. If you need an example I can give you 12. Look no further than the disciples whom Jesus chose to spread the good news to the world.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  John 1:12 (NIV)

Secondly, and this is the hardest but very necessary part. Start studying about the history and truth of the bible. There are a lot of different areas you can study but I suggest studying about Jesus’ death on the cross if you don’t want to do a chronological study. There are a lot of facts about Jesus’ crucifixion that we overlook because we don’t live in the time of experiencing what a roman crucifixion is like. A good book on this topic is Crucifixion by Martin Hengel. There are lot of people who question this aspect of Jesus’ life. This book will educate you which in turn will give you confidence when talking about the truth.

If they are doubting that Jesus died on the cross you could point to them the facts. Some people will say that Jesus some how survived his crucifixion but we know that isn’t true but no where in history has anyone ever survived a roman crucifixion.

To conclude, these are just 2 areas to get you started but remember it’s the holy spirit working in you that will win the hearts and minds of our children and the youth we come into contact with. Throughout this process never stop praying that hearts would be softened to receive the truth.

God is still at work!

What kinds of questions have you been asked by your children or other youth that challenge you?