One of my pet peeves is hearing someone talk about dumbing your teaching down for younger kids. Raise your hand if you’ve heard it before. It makes teaching younger age groups seem less than teaching older age groups, and I think that’s dumb.
Here are a few reasons why you should think differently if you are in the dumb it down crowd.
1. Jesus said to get on their level.
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew 18:3
It’s about humility, trust, and vulnerability. It’s not about knowledge, success, and prowess.
2. Simple is harder tough.
One of my favorite quotes on this topic of simplicity comes from Steve Jobs, who knew a thing or two about simplicity. He said,
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
I would argue that it’s tougher to teach kids biblical truth because of their lack of attention span (dynamic, engaging delivery) and the fact that you must explain complex procedures in a way that is simple and concise. That is tough.
So there are a few. I challenge you though to explain anything, much less biblical truth, to a child. It’s much more difficult than you think. Maybe we all need a little dumbing down
I shared one of my pet peeves, what’s one of yours that you have experienced working with kids or teens?
