Are My Kids Getting the Message?

Have you ever wondered if your parental messages are getting through to your kids?

Sometimes I’m not sure if my sound motherly advice like, “grab a jacket, it’s cold outside” is hitting home with them when I see them run right past me with no jacket. 

I often wonder the same thing  about sharing Biblical truth with our boys. At ages 11 and 15, they are much too old to include a hardback book of the Easter story in their baskets with brightly colored eggs and candy.

The night before Easter, I was settling in to sleep and I started to think and pray about how I am sharing the most important message my kids will ever hear. I’m overwhelmed by Gods grace for me, but do my sons get it? Are they hearing me when I tell them about the importance of the cross? Are the seeds I’m planting hitting fertile soil that God is growing in them?

As I lay there thinking and praying, an idea came to mind. The next morning, while my husband was preparing hot German potato salad (a family favorite!) I gathered eight Easter eggs, and wrote out a portion of scripture from Luke 22- 24 for each one. I then hid them around the house. The boys had to work together to find the eggs and then put the story in order in the shape of a cross. Even though they weren’t “thrilled” to work together they completed the tasks. They could even tell the account of Jesus’s Journey to the cross in order. Before they were given their “prize egg,” I asked them to share how knowing Jesus has changed their life. 

All three of my sons were able to share specific examples of how Jesus has been their source of help and comfort.

It gave me so much hope. 

This is definitely is not the norm in our home, which is why I wonder if they are even hearing us. When Dave and I read scripture, do a devotional, or discuss spiritual things we are often met with the typical eye roll, long sigh, or restlessness indicating they are ready to move on. Maybe you can relate.

But one day, in a sea of days when my sons verbally express how Jesus has changed their lives, I am encouraged to keep going. 

I know I don’t have many years of experience being a mother. Just enough to know that it’s pretty important to write this one down. So when I’m feeling like all is lost again, I can look back and remember this moment on this Easter when we were all staying at home. 

There is ground being covered in the small things. Every time you share Jesus with your kids it matters. Every time you pray over them it matters. It matters to God and it makes a difference. Even when they don’t show it. 

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”