Teaching Our Children to be Joyful

There are certain spiritual disciplines we desire to teach our children. We want them to know how to read their Bible, pray, tithe, and how to have fellowship with like minded believers. These things are fundamental as followers of Christ. We must also be daily teaching our children to by joyful. We will not always hold our little one’s hands and so to impart this wisdom to them is life-giving.

In our process of sanctification, joy is often overlooked as a discipline.  However, it is something that needs to be tended to and cultivated in our lives. We know it is a spiritual fruit; in Philippians 4:4 Paul tells us to continually rejoice.  Sadly, many Christian adults seem to lose track of this joy over time. I believe children come by joy naturally and is not something we (usually) have to devote large amounts of time teaching them. Our job as mommas is to steer this joy in the direction of Christ.

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What is joy?

There is a distinct difference between joy and happiness that we need to remember when we talk about joy. Happiness is not a spiritual fruit, it is not what we should focus on as Christians and it is not eternal. Joy on the other hand is a spiritual fruit and something God calls us to build into our lives. Joy springs forth from within us, it is not swayed by what circumstance we find ourselves in. Happiness is not always possible but joy is.

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There are hard things we all face in this life – to embrace joy is not to put our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is golden. That is deception. Rather let us remember Job and all he walked through, never once cursing God. As Nehemiah 8:10 tells us, the joy of the Lord was Job’s strength.

We also know that Jesus wept. Emotions are God made and not a bad thing. Rather than an emotion, joy is a state of being and that is why it can be present even when circumstances in our life show otherwise. Romans 8:18 – That pain that you have been feeling can’t compare to the joy that is coming. Our children need to learn that – unlike happiness – joy is deep and abiding, joy comes from a relationship with Christ.  

Teaching Our Children to be Joyful

Teaching our children to be joyful has to start somewhere and what better place to learn that at the feet of our Savior. Mommas, your example here goes far.  Children need to see their parents joyfully serving the Lord so that they may learn to do the same. Lead by example and exemplify joy in the Lord for your children. Habakkuk 3:18 says “Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation”. If we don’t teach our children how to joyfully serve the Lord, someone else will teach them how not to.

• Reading the Word with our children, This allows them to learn the character of God. It teaches them that He is a loving and joyful God. Being in the Word ourselves helps us to reflect God’s character in our life and back to our children. We as parents have the awesome responsibility of pointing our kids towards Christ and I can’t think of a more joyful ministry. There are resources such as scriptural lullabies that help get the word into even the youngest of ears. I believe the more this becomes a habit in our homes, the more joy we will find in it. Challenge yourself to spend more time in the word ladies.  There are many ways of doing this from sitting down and reading the word, to decorating with scripture – so you see the word as you go about your home – and as I mentioned above scriptural lullabies can be enjoyed by the entire family.

 

• Prayer. Prayer is another way we can teach our children to take joy in Christ. Many of us have been praying for our children since before they were born. What a privilege it is to come before the throne on their behalf. May I challenge you to begin praying for their salvation and ability to find joy in serving the Lord even at a young age? With our world and culture the way it is, we need (joyful) warriors to rise up and fight. Teach your children to joyfully come before God in prayer. Because joy is a fruit of the spirit is not something we can create on our own, it comes from God. Allowing God into our hearts and sharing with Him our every thought/need allows Him to grow joy in and through us.

 

 

• Show them God’s expressions of love throughout the day. Another way of leading our children to joy is to teach them to find God’s fingerprints throughout the day. One of my favorite things to do with my son is to point out God’s handiwork all around us. I am known for grabbing him in the midst of play and running to the window to show him the sky God has painted for us. I tell him of God’s miraculous love and how God took joy in painting the sky just for us to celebrate. I also point out flowers, butterflies, and birds to my little guy, and in doing so tell Him about Gods love and joy over us. He – even at 22 months – has begun to point out things that He notices around him (rocks, sticks, flowers, birds, etc). Ladies, the task of cultivating joy in our children does not have to be hard; children notice and delight in the small things.

I believe as you aim to grow this in your children, your joy will also increase. 1 Peter 1:6 Be truly glad there is wonderful joy ahead. Press on, sweet momma, you are making an impact for eternity.

Amber is wife of four years to Lance, her engineer/rancher husband. She has a 22 month old son named Matthew, who she is blessed to stay home with. Amber lives in Montana, where the mountains meet the prairie. You can find Amber at  Through Hope’s Door where her passion is to help women to draw nearer to the true source of joy, Jesus Christ. 

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