Home Education, Volume 1
Training and Educating Children Under Nine
Pg. 19 & 20
V. -- Hindering the Children
A Child's Relationship with Almighty God. --
The most fatal way of despising the child falls under the third educational law of the Gospels; it is to over-look and make light of his natural relationship with Almighty God. "Suffer the little children to come unto Me," says the Savior, as if that were the natural thing for the children to do, the thing they do when they are not hindered by their elders. And perhaps it is not too beautiful a thing to believe in this redeemed world, that, as the babe turns to his mother though he has no power to say her name, as the flowers turn to the sun, so the hearts of the children turn to the Savior and God with unconscious delight and trust.
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God does love and cherish the little children all day long, and fill their hours with delight. Add to this listless perfunctory prayers, idle discussions of Divine things in their presence, light use of holy words, few signs whereby the child can read that the things of God are more to his parents than any things of the world, and the child is hindered, tacitly forbidden to "come unto Me," -- and this, often by parents who in the depths of their hearts desire nothing in comparison with God. The mischief lies in that same foolish undervaluing of the children, in the notion that the child can have no spiritual life until it please his elders to kindle the flame.
Read this passage and more here on Ambleside Online.
I was pondering to myself how unknowingly we as parents may cause stumbling blocks in front of our children's relationships with God. Maybe they have overheard us having philosophical biblical conversations with our spouse or others? Charlotte warns about children being privy to subjects that they aren't mature enough to understand, which cause them to stumble onto pathways that cause confusion.
I suppose we just need to keep the bible simply but clear. And now the only question I'm left with in this is how? Without it becoming a regurgitated message they have memorized?
One large way I love to include biblical precepts into my children's teaching is Nature Study & other Science. I feel like showing children the works of God in nature gives them knowledge that God is currently working daily in a very visible way, in the simple transformations of caterpillar to butterfly, etc.
How do you make sure you aren't hindering your children's relationships with God? Or, better yet, facilitate a better one?
God Bless,
Julie