Discipling your child ages 0-2 and teaching them about God and the Bible is simplified with my framework for discipleship. Follow along for recommendations on what to teach and how to teach your little ones to create a Biblically-Minded Family.
What should we teach our 0–2-year-olds about God and the Bible and how should we do that?
What should we teach?
- Teach your little one about God the Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. We should teach that God is the Creator (Maker) of everything, that Jesus is God’s Son who loves us, and the Holy Spirit is our Helper.
- Teach them that talking to God is called prayer. Even though we can’t see Him we can talk to Him every day through prayer.
- Teach them that God gave us a special book, the Bible, and we need to read it and care for it!
How should we teach those things?
1. Use sentences and phrases to teach your child the Bible.
Start with saying small sentences that the children can remember and then ask them to fill in the blanks with the missing word or two. For example, you could say, “Jesus loves…” and your child would respond with “ME” or his/her name. You could add on to this by having them lift their hands into the air when they say ME or JOSIAH! Other sentences could be:
- “The Bible is ….GOD’S WORD”
- “I will …. OBEY!”
- “God made…. ME!”
2. Have your child ages 0-2 practice caring for their Bible.
We desire for our children to love the Bible. When they are young, we give them a children’s Bible board book. We teach them to take good care of it because it isn’t just any book, it is the Word of God. Have them carry it carefully, turn the pages slowly, and put it back where it belongs each time it is read. Some of my little ones caught on at an early age that the Bible was extra special and began to kiss the Bible each time they saw it!
3. Read their Bible to them regularly.
In a time in their lives when they are learning words and sentence formation, why not use the Word of God to teach them that? Use a children’s Bible with bright, colorful pages. While each page might not have much content to them, that is just fine. You are building the routine of reading the Bible, learning vocabulary and spending the time together. Use the Bible as a springboard for additional conversation as you look at the details in the pictures and talk about what you see and read.
4. Teach your child to pray, even though they are only 0-2 years old.
While your 8-month-old may not be able to pray in sentences, we can teach these small ones to be reverent in prayer times whether that is at mealtimes or at bedtime. This may look different for every family. Ideas that have worked well would be to all bow your heads and close your eyes during prayer, fold your hands together while you bow your heads, or hold hands together as a family to form a circle. All of these ideas help to limit the distractions that we face during prayer times as a family.
Another idea to teach your child to pray would be for your child to learn to say AMEN at the end of the prayer. While saying AMEN isn’t necessary at the end of prayer time, it does help the little ones to stay connected to the prayer time and gives them a special job to do. They will learn to listen for the ending and add in a resounding AMEN at the top of their lungs! It is precious to hear the little ones starting to be included in family prayer time, even if AMEN doesn’t sound like AMEN at first.
5. Sing songs together that use Scripture.
Sing songs together that have Bible verses or simple truths from the Bible. Songs like Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Oh How I Love Jesus, and The B-I-B-L-E have been favorites at our house. It is a special thing to see and hear your 14-month-old singing the truths of the Scriptures as they play with blocks on the carpet! There is no better thing than for them to learn these truths early and have them develop a mind that loves the Lord and His Word.
6. Role play obedience as a way to disciple your child ages 0-2.
Children need to obey right away. This is a perfect age to begin teaching your children that obedience is not an option. God gave you as the parent the responsibility to train your children. Many have neglected this and desired for children to be their friends rather than their child. We desire, though, for our children to know that we are the parent and have them obey us “right away and with a happy heart.” When they are this age, we begin by making games out of everyday tasks and praise them when they obey immediately. Once they can toddle, we instruct them to come here, or pick up a certain toy. We praise them for happily obeying us… not just with a cheer, but with, “Thank you for coming to mommy right away. It is important that you always listen to me and obey what we ask you to.”
Now, does your child who is less than two actually understand all that you are saying? NO! They don’t, but you are laying the groundwork of obedience that will be pivotal in the next stage of their development. If your child isn’t obeying at this age, when do you think they will start to learn it? Practice obedience. Make it a game. It is foundational to the rest of child-rearing.
By using these ideas to disciple your child and teach this little one about God, the Bible, prayer, and obedience, we will be laying the foundational principles about what it means to be a Biblically-Minded Family. Congratulations, parent, you are well on your way to success!
Which one or ones of these ideas of discipling your child ages 0-2 have you implemented in your home?
What other ideas to do you have to share with our community so we can learn to train our little ones ages 0-2 in Biblical ways?
Please comment below so we can all develop into Biblically-Minded Families!
Do you have other children who are beyond the 0-2 stage? Check out the other stages of raising a who is Biblically-Minded family by looking for a particular age group under our Discipleship Tab at the top of the page or click here.
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