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3 Easy Ways to Start Talking About Faith with Your Kids

by | Apr 24, 2023 | Articles, Talk About Your Faith | 0 comments

Are you out of practice talking about faith in your day-to-day conversations at home?

Do you ever feel awkward trying to talk about God, the Bible, or spiritual things in general when you’re interacting with your kids?

If you’ve been there before, welcome! This post is written with you in mind.

This post is all about how to start talking about your faith with your kids.

Do you need a resource to use to teach your kids the Bible? Download the NEW Attributes of God 30-Day Family Devotional!

3 Easy Ways to Start Talking About Faith with Your Kids

There are some topics that feel extremely hard to bring up with other people, and our belief in God is one of them. I think there are a lot of reasons for this, and I won’t get into all of them, but there are a few that stick out to me right now. 

One reason is that many of us weren’t raised in homes where our parents talked about their faith in God. If that’s the case for you, you might have a harder time knowing where to begin because no one talked to you at home about faith when you were growing up.

Another reason is that in America, it’s rude to ask someone what their spiritual beliefs are. Those beliefs are deeply personal, so we are taught from a young age not to talk about them. That habit is hard to break. Many of us have carried it from childhood into adulthood without realizing it.

Like I said, there are definitely more reasons than just those two, but for today I just want to ask you a question.  

Here it is: Should it really be weird to talk to our kids about who God is and what’s true about Him?

We teach them what they should believe about other topics, and it’s mostly not weird.

Instead, it’s more informative and instructive.

And, best of all, we don’t carry a lot of shame or guilt or pressure about teaching our kids most things. We dive it and do our best.

If something is hard to talk about but we know it’s important – things like explaining puberty or how to handle a specific conflict – we seek out some help or advice, but if the topic is important we figure out a way to talk about it.

Except when it comes to spiritual matters.

Here, we feel a sense of awkwardness that we just don’t feel about other topics. And many times we just let it go and drop any mention of faith from our day-to-day conversations.

But should it be weird? Should we feel awkwardness? Should we just drop it?

I would say that if you believe in God, you probably want your kids to believe in Him as well.

And as Romans 10:14 tells us: “… how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” 

We as parents are the “someone” who is responsible for telling our kids who God is. 

So today I want to give you three easy ways you can start talking about God and faith and other spiritual things with your kids.

The first easy way you can start talking about your faith with your kids is to have a daily check-in time and use your turn to mention something small about your faith. 

In our house, we call this “highs and lows.” We usually do this at dinner, but you could easily do this on the car ride home from school, on the way to a sports practice, or even right before your kids head off to bed. 

The basic idea is that everyone shares one high point of their day and one low point. For us, it’s been a really positive addition to our day with our kids. We get to hear stories from their day from their perspective and learn how our kids felt about things that happened each day. 

And you can use this check in time to talk about faith with your kids. When it’s your turn, choose a high or low point that relates to your faith. 

Maybe your high is that you got up and read your Bible that morning. Or that a friend called and updated you about something you’d been praying for, and you got to see how God worked. Or maybe you missed your time reading the Bible and feel a little down about it.

Your goal here is to just share one small thing about faith and normalize talking about spiritual things in day-to-day conversations. 

The truth is that this takes practice, but a daily check in is a great opportunity for you to practice talking about your faith in a low-pressure way. 

The second easy way you can start talking about your faith with your kids is to pray with your kids regularly. 

Some of you probably just had a strong negative reaction to that, but stick with me. I promise this tip is going to be easier to accomplish than you think.

There is something about the practice of praying with other people that makes it less awkward to talk about spiritual things with them.

So if you don’t currently have a time of day that you pray with your kids, I would encourage you to pick a time that you add that in.

Maybe that’s before dinner or before bed, or even before your kids leave for school in the morning. Whatever time you think would be the least weird, that’s the time you need to pick because that’s when you’re most likely to do it.

If you already have a time that you pray together as a family, then I have an idea for you on how to add a little something that will make it even better.

A prayer list.

Yep, a simple list that you can rotate through. In our house, we use prayer sticks for this, but you could use a list on paper or in your phone too.  

I got the idea to use prayer sticks from Glenna Marshall, who is a Christian author, blogger, and speaker. You can read a post she wrote about using prayer sticks and teaching her children how to prayer for others here.

Here is the basic idea: You take popsicle sticks and a jar, and you write out the names of the people you want to pray for on the popsicle sticks.

Each day at whatever time you’re going to pray – for us it’s added to our before-dinner prayer – you just grab a stick and pray for that person. 

For my family, this method has been really effective. Just adding one short prayer for someone else to the before-dinner prayer has led to our kids bringing up spiritual things during our dinner conversation. That wasn’t something I expected, and it’s been cool to see it happen.

If you think prayer sticks won’t work for your family, just make a physical list you can reference. Then when you’re praying at a time you already pray, just add in a line of prayer for someone. Your kids will catch on to the fact that you’re praying for someone new each time, and that’s going to open the door for spiritual conversations. Then you can get your kids to give input about new names to add to the list.

Whether you use prayer sticks or a list or something else entirely, the goal here is to add prayer with your kids to your daily routine, because it really does lead to more talk about faith in general.

The third easy way to start talking about your faith with your kids is to let your kids see you read your Bible. 

Think back to a time when you were engaged in an activity in your house – somewhere where your people could see you doing that activity.

Maybe it was reading a book, maybe it was knitting, maybe it was fixing something … it doesn’t matter what the activity was.

I bet someone talked to you about what you were doing. 

When our people see us doing really anything, it sparks conversations about that thing. At some point, someone in your house is going to ask what book you’re reading. Or what you’re drawing. Or what you’re trying to make.

And then you get to talk about that thing with them in a not-awkward way.

Letting your kids see you read your Bible will spark conversations about what you’re reading and what you’re learning.

When I was younger, I used to think that I should do my Bible study privately. After all, we’re not supposed to be showy. I got the impression that praying and reading the Bible in front of others would just be me showing off how spiritual I was. I was taught not to do that by spiritual mentors and pastors.  

Because that’s what I thought, when I had very young kids, I struggled to do it at all. I kind of felt weird doing it where they could see me, but I didn’t have any alone time. 

Here’s what I realized. As a mom, sometimes the only time that I’m going to get for Bible study is going to be on the couch next to a sick kid, or during breakfast while everyone’s eating before school. And it would be better for me to read my Bible and actually hear from God through that than to never read my Bible at all. 

Another thing I’ve realized is that if my kids never see a grown up read their Bible, they will likely struggle to see how the habit of daily Bible reading can actually be established. If they never see me seeking out the Lord or hear me talking about faith, it will be harder for them to do those things too. 

So if they can see you read your Bible, it’s going to set a really good example for them of what it looks like to be a real person with a hectic schedule and a lot going on who also studies the Bible. 

And it’s going to open the door for them to say, “Hey, what are you doing?”

And then you get to say, “Oh, I’m reading in the book of John” or “Just reading my Bible, want me to show you where I’m at?”

What you’ll be doing is normalizing the idea that our faith is a part of our day-to-day lives, and that’s going to normalize the idea that talking about God is just a thing that Christians do.

That’s the goal we’re working toward, right? Being able to talk about Jesus with our kids in a natural way … a way that doesn’t feel awkward or forced. 

Letting our kids see us read the Bible is one way we can do that. 

Ok, let’s recap those three ideas for you.

  • The first idea is to have a daily check-in time and use your turn to mention something about your faith.
  • The second idea is to pray with your kids regularly.
  • The third idea is to let your kids see you read your Bible.

Take Action to Talk to Your Kids about Your Faith

We’re going to end with an action step you can take today.

Today’s action step is to pick one item on this list and do it.

I would love to encourage you and pray for you specifically! 

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Do you need a resource to use to teach your kids the Bible? Download the NEW Attributes of God 30-Day Family Devotional!

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