Talking with Your Kids about JesusChikamu

Day One: Starting the Conversation

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:6-9, 1 Peter 3:15 

I was scrolling through Facebook one day when I saw an article that stopped me in my tracks: “5 Things People with Tidy Homes Don’t Do.” Oh boy. I knew I needed to read that…immediately. I am constantly fighting a messy house. Whenever I take my kids to a friend’s home, I’m amazed at how relatively clean it is. How do they not have a pencil on every seat cushion? How do they not have returned homework papers carelessly scattered across the floor? What do these parents know that I don’t?

The article I clicked on that day provided a tantalizing clue to the answer. The author wrote, “Tidy People don’t act like a slob all day, and then get their house tidy in one fell swoop…Tidy People are in a constant state of low-grade tidying.”

The point hit me like a ton of bricks. Those clean houses I visit aren’t the product of naturally clean kids. They’re the product of parents with good habits—parents who are constantly in a state of low- grade tidying. And I couldn’t help but see the connection to discipleship. 

As parents, we’re often as overwhelmed by the task of having deep faith conversations with our kids as I am by the task of keeping a clean house. We have a rough idea of how our spiritual house should look, but we feel we’ve let things get messier than they should be. We know we should have more faith conversations than we do, the ones we do have don’t go as we’d like, and discouragement sets in when we don’t feel equipped to answer the questions our kids raise. These subtle disappointments are like pencils on seat cushions—nagging reminders that things aren’t where we’d like them to be.

But, just as with clean houses, impactful faith conversations happen through consistent low-grade tidying. Homes where meaningful faith discussions happen regularly are the product of intentional parents who believe nothing is more important than raising kids to know and love Jesus—He must come first. Getting our spiritual house in order starts with that simple commitment. Once that’s in place, we’re ready for conversation—one faithful day at a time.

Do you feel either ill-equipped or too busy to talk with your kids about deeper questions of faith? Recognize this is a process, and you are simply beginning conversations that will deepen over time as you consistently invest in your family’s faith life.