{"id":11985,"date":"2025-03-28T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T18:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wonderink.org\/?p=11985"},"modified":"2025-03-12T13:54:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T19:54:54","slug":"god-sightings-helping-kids-look-for-and-recognize-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wonderink.org\/god-sightings-helping-kids-look-for-and-recognize-god\/","title":{"rendered":"God Sightings: Helping Kids Look For and Recognize God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The book of Ecclesiastes says that God has \u201cset eternity in the human heart,\u201d implying something that has been backed by developmental and psychological research: that children, by nature, seek out something larger than themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yale psychologist Paul Bloom notes that children, regardless of the beliefs of the people who raised them, prefer explanations about the origins of animals and people that include an intentional Creator. Justin Barrett, a professor of developmental science, calls children \u201cborn believers,\u201d just as children are born to eventually talk or walk, it doesn\u2019t take much environmental input to get children to wonder about a higher power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this longing to see a Creator is innate in children, how do we, as parents, caregivers, and ministry leaders, teach children to look for God and His character in all things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is present in children by nature, it would suggest to me that our job is not to teach them to look for God, but instead to shape their theology<\/a> in such a way that their natural propensity to wonder and look is answered in the God who is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want children to look for God, they need to first look in His Word so they know what they are looking for.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Teaching Children to Look for God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My daughter has always been a wonder seeker. I have pages of quotes with her full wonder on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was eight years old, as I tucked her into bed, I said “May God bless you, sweet one!” She replied with wide eyes, “He already has!” When I asked her how God had blessed her, she said, “This morning! With a brand-new day! God knows how much I LOVE days!” She is the child who would notice the flowers dancing in the wind, or the way \u201cGod painted snowflakes\u201d on the car windshield, even as I dreaded scraping the frost left overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I would love to say it was our immaculate parenting skills that developed that sense of wonder<\/a> in her, I believe that we came alongside her wonder with our theology, as we sought to help her see the One who made her to wonder and made all she wonders at. She would notice the wonder, and we would name the Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing Theology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If we want to teach children to look for God, we must help them develop a full and robust view of who God is, which requires us to consider our theology and how we are teaching theology\u2014the study of God\u2014to children. God reveals Himself to us through His Word, so any and all theology we are teaching children has to begin with the Bible. If you want children to look for God, they need to first look in His Word so they know what they are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"toddler
Credit:Getty Images\/Moment\/Halfpoint Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To help kids develop a theology from God\u2019s Word, you might:<\/p>\n\n\n\n