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Share Your Testimony: Why Parents Must Tell Children Their Faith Stories

share your testimony

Why is it so important to share your testimony with your own children? As life passes quickly and children grow older, they formulate their opinion about their parents. In fact, they formulate their opinion about everything they see and experience. They know facts about you, your house, the leaky faucet, the squeaky floors. And that’s all a normal part of life.

As kids build knowledge about the family, what do they know about you? Do they know about your job? Do they know you like baseball? Sure, but there’s a bigger question. Do they know you’re a Christian?

It’s Powerful to Share Your Testimony

Have you ever shared your testimony of conversion with your children? Sure, your kids know you’re religious. That’s evident as you attend church on a weekly basis. But it’s extremely vital for your children to know about your salvation. It’s critically important for kids to grow up in your home hearing about how you came to faith in Christ.

Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Before the early disciples went to the ends of the earth, the people in their own home had to know what had happened. That’s because they were witnesses in their own home too.

To be a witness is to share openly what you’ve seen and heard. Witnesses tell their experience. If you’re a witness, you share your testimony. God calls Christians to share openly about how he brought them to a place of repentance and faith in Jesus.

Someone may ask, “When did you become religious?” To the outside world looking in, it’s just religion. However, a witness makes it clear that it’s far more than just religion.

Do your children know that when your family attends church that it’s far more than religion? Have they heard the firsthand story of the witness about how you were brought to a place of recognizing your sin and guilt before God? Have they heard about how you called out to God for salvation? Do your kids know about your deep faith in the God who saves sinners? Do they know you’re one in a long line of redemption stories throughout history? Have they heard you share your testimony?

Your Story Is Really About God

Stories are powerful tools that we can use to communicate truth. Jesus often taught with stories, and his disciples grew as they heard him communicate truth. However, your testimony is more than a powerful story. If all you do is share your story with others, you will fail to be a true witness of the gospel. Your story is not about you. When you share your testimony, it’s about God.

When Paul stood before Agrippa, he told his story. However, he traced the story from his pre-conversion status as a Pharisee to his post-conversion status as a prisoner for Jesus. The entire story was intended to point to the saving power of God in his life. It was not to glorify Paul but rather to glorify God.

What Scripture Says

In Deuteronomy 6, we find the repeating of the Law. Moses points the people to share the story of God’s saving power with their children. In fact, when they ask about why they worship God and serve God in the way they do, the people of Israel were to communicate the following:

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes.

“And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us’” (Deuteronomy 6:20–25).

What to Share With Kids

When your children ask why you go to church, why you read the Bible in the evenings at home, and why you go to church on Wednesday, you can explain that you were once in bondage to sin and led astray by the devil, but God saved you (Eph. 2:1-10).

You can explain how the god of this world had blinded you (2 Cor. 4:4). But through the message of hope—the good news of Jesus—you came to understand your sin and your need for a Savior (Rom. 1:16).

You can explain how God brought you to a place of repentance and how you turned to God by faith—believing that Jesus paid your sin debt on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). Then he demonstrated his ability to forgive sinners by his resurrection from the dead on the third day (John 14:19).

God Rescued You

While your story is indeed powerful, it’s not really about you. It’s about how a sovereign God rescued you. Remember, when we talk about being saved it’s not the story of us saving ourselves. We were helpless. We were dead in our trespasses and sin and couldn’t save ourselves (Eph. 2:1-3). Therefore, our story is about God’s story of redemption.

Do your children see you as religious, or do they view you as a Christian? There is a massive difference—an eternal difference. Share your testimony. Tell your story. But most importantly, tell the story of God’s saving love.

This article originally appeared here.

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Dr. Josh Buice serves as the pastor of Pray's Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia — just west of Atlanta. He is the founding director of the G3 Conference, the author of a theology blog (DeliveredByGrace.com) and is passionate about expository preaching, biblical theology, and the local church. Josh studied at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he earned his M.Div. and D.Min. in expository preaching. With a passion for sound biblical theology and ecclesiology, Pastor Buice spends much of his time preaching, writing, and talking about these important issues. He is married to his wife Kari and together they have four children (Karis, John Mark, Kalli, and Judson). When away from the office, Josh enjoys spending his time with his family, hunting, running, and a good cup of coffee.