Elementary Religion
Kids in church are learning the Gospel through morality. Is this the best way to be teaching children Christianity? I don’t know I’m just posing the question.
Obviously, it’s not a bad thing to teach children morals and guidelines based from the bible. But, what about the relationship of Jesus? Maybe it’s too advanced for younger children to learn. But I know sometimes people become resentful of religion because of its strict rules on us.
I have no degree in child psychology but is there a way to teach kids about the relationship of Jesus without trivializing it into a list of rules and things you aren’t allowed to do? And then merely tying this to a cliche every-week-answer that Jesus loves you.
Even that concept alone could be distorting their view of love. They are to believe that supposedly they are loved by something they can’t tangibly see or touch, and obviously have never met. What if this leads to teenagers who are ‘in love’ in junior high? After all, they can actually see their object of affection.
1 Comment
Jessica
Jun 07 @ 04:16 PM
In my opinion, I think adults don’t think that children have the capacity to learn about Jesus at the level they themselves do. So they teach them through lists and tell them what they should and shouldn’t do as children of God. But from experience, I realized children seem to have a better capacity at holding onto that kind of information, and they find it to be true a lot easier, moreso than adults. For the simple fact that they can believe. Faith in a child is an extraoridnary thing, learning the truth at a younger age, and learning it from the Bible, not having it dumbed down; they learn about how they should live their life, and know it, and it stays with them through it all. Whether they live it out or not, they know it’ and remember it throughout time. I don’t think that how they learn about God distorts their view of love, life does, how they are raised outside of the church. The parental figures in a child’s life is more influential during their young life, it is where they learn things, such as how to interact with others and even love them. There are voids in our lives that we try to fill on our own, before turning to God, that is the mistake we as humans make.
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