The RenewaNation Review 2020 Volume 12 Issue 1 | Page 13

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We can’t expect that the pieces our kids pick up at church will fall into obvious places.
It is our responsibility to be the intentional hand that guides these pieces into place.
In Sunday school, kids tend to be continually handed the
same pieces over and over: individual Bible stories, help
with building godly character, and some basic life lessons.
If this is effectively the extent of a child’s spiritual training,
skeptics will eventually point out that their faith is equiv-
alent in complexity to a toddler’s 12-piece puzzle. Sunday
school tends to be focused on the basics, but kids need so
much more than basics today given the challenges they are
sure to encounter.
As parents, we are responsible for helping our kids develop
faith with a meaningful level of complexity. The 30 conver-
sations in my book Talking with Your Kids about God are
critical for kids to understand today, yet very few of those
questions would even be touched on in a Sunday school
class. The level of spiritual depth kids need to stand strong in
a secular world simply won’t come from the typical Sunday
school curriculum.
3. Having a bunch of puzzle pieces doesn’t necessarily
mean you’ll know what to do with the puzzle even if you
finish it.
When my kids finish puzzles, they want to leave them out
for a while to display their work. Their puzzles linger in
the corner of the room until I can’t stand it anymore and
tell them they’ve enjoyed the puzzles “long enough.” We
don’t know what else to do with them other than to put
them away.
Similarly, when I left home with 600-plus hours of church
tucked safely under my belt, I truly didn’t know what to
do with my faith, other than continue to
wear the Christian label and bide my time as
a good person until I was zapped up to heaven someday.
Those hundreds of hours hadn’t taught me what it means
to actually see all of life differently than someone who didn’t
believe in Jesus; I had no idea what it meant to have a Chris-
tian worldview.
As parents, we are responsible for placing the picture into
a real-world context for our kids. Over 600 hours of Sunday
school may never directly answer questions like, “How does
the fact that we are created in the image of God impact
our view of the sanctity of life?” “Why is it sometimes the
most loving action to tell people the truth they don’t want
to hear?” or “How can we make career decisions that glorify
God?” Parents must be proactive in helping kids know what
to do with their puzzle of faith. Otherwise, it will likely be
pushed to the corner of their life, where it will eventually be
dismantled and put away for good.
Don’t leave your kids “puzzled” by outsourcing their faith
to church. Whether they spend 600 or 6,000 hours in Sunday
school, there’s simply no replacement for you. ■
Natasha Crain is a national speaker, author, and blogger who is passionate about equipping
Christian parents to raise their kids with an understanding of how to make a case for and
defend their faith in an increasingly secular world. She is the author of two apologetics
books for parents: Talking with Your Kids about God and Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side.
Natasha writes at christianmomthoughts.com.
Copyright © 2016 Natasha Crain. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission. For more
information, visit christianmomthoughts.com.
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