“I’m So Happy! I’m Going to Teach Children!”

In 1974, my Grandmother wrote those exact words in a magazine titled Children’s Leadership. Here’s the first sentence of that article: “Right now I’m so excited I can hardly concentrate on typing this article. You see, I’ve been asked and elected to teach children again next year!” This is the most quintessential Grandmother thing she could have written. As long as I knew her, she had a deep love for children. And she didn’t just love children, but she loved to tell them about Christ. I remember her talking to me after my sister had her first child. We were looking in the window at a newborn in the nursery and she said, “I wonder when he’ll give his heart to Christ.” Having recently come across some of her writings, and also teaching 5-year-olds myself this year, I wanted to share some encouragements from her about teaching children.

First, can we get onboard with her enthusiasm? You get the opportunity to teach children about the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and you’re bummed? We get to be among the first ones to plant those seeds that could grow into eternal life. We might be the first people to tell these kids words like justification. We are one stepping stone in the path that could lead to salvation, and that’s really exciting! When the children came to Jesus, He didn’t shrug them off like some major inconvenience. He welcomed them and blessed them, and said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). So let’s get excited about teaching these little ones.

Second, and more importantly, my grandmother wrote this keen observation as she began her time preparing to teach children: “I quickly began reading and studying the teacher’s book, then the pupil’s book, then the teacher’s book – until I realized that I had forgotten the most important Book: the Bible. Believe me, I’ve started with that Book first ever since.” What a great reminder! The kids you teach need God’s word just like everyone else. We can think that we need some fancy method or cute trick to play on kids to teach them, but what we really need is what God through Jeremiah calls “a hammer.” “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jer 23:29). Yes! What will break through those hard, stony hearts? God’s Word!

Having five children of my own, I can testify to the difficulty of training them in the Word. But it has been my experience that children are listening more than you think, and taking in more than you can imagine. We are going through Colossians as a family now, and the last few weeks have been moving really slowly through verses 1:15-23. I really labored to emphasize the deity of Christ, and I wasn’t sure how much was really being soaked in. Nothing gets five young boys riled up like the hypostatic union! Ha! But a few days after going through these passages, my 7-year-old asked my wife, “Why did Jesus call out to Himself when he was on the cross?” Woah! What a great question. If Jesus is God, then who was He talking to on the cross? I share this to encourage you to press into God’s word with children. They are thinking more than you know!

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Teaching children is a great privilege, and I want to be excited to teach God’s word to those little souls. I pray for my own kiddos and also those that I will be teaching at our church. By God’s grace, there will be eternal fruit borne for His glory as we pour into these children. I’ll leave you with the same words my Grandmother ended her article: “A new year ahead! New faces. New problems. I’m so happy! I’m going to teach children!”

Jacob Crouch 2024

Betty Waldron Davis has been with Jesus since 2022. I wrote about her HERE.