Teaching Our Kids to Call on the Lord in Times of Need

Our daughter was practicing piano while I was sitting on the couch reading and as she was playing, I noticed that there was a particular sequence of notes that she kept messing up. After about three tries, I saw her doing something absolutely amazing. She stopped playing the piano, closed her eyes, humbled herself in prayer and said: Holy Spirit please help me! And then she started playing again and proceeded to play the whole song beautifully. The Holy Spirit, true to God’s Word, helped her play the tricky notes flawlessly! I don’t like to interrupt our children as they practice piano, so when she was done I excitedly commented on what I had just witnessed, mentioning that I was so blessed as I watched her practice what the Bible teaches us in Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Yes! She gleefully replied, there was a part of the song that I couldn’t get right and when I asked the Holy Spirit to help me, I got it right! The Holy Spirit helped me Mummy!

I was so encouraged because what I had just witnessed was faith in action. This practical experience of calling on the Lord in her time of need is going to be a wonderful witness for her in her faith walk with Jesus. No one can tell her God does not hear us and answer us when we call on Him for help because she has seen and experienced it for herself in her own life! She can absolutely testify to the goodness of God!

From a young age, we always encourage our children to pray and ask God for help when faced with difficult situations. For example, if they have lost a toy and have searched everywhere to no avail. They’ll come to me for help and I’ll say have you asked God to help you? At first it sounded strange, even to myself I’ll admit, but my husband and I resolved to train our children to look to God for help, making Him the first ‘person’ they run to naturally and then follow His leading. So, I will ask then to say a prayer asking God to help them find the toy and off they go. A few minutes later they will return triumphant, toy in hand, glad that God helped them and directed them to find the missing toy and unbeknownst to them, they will have grown stronger in faith. After a couple of times of this happening; being directed to God for help, they start to go to God without being reminded first. It is becoming a part of them.

Though it may appear small, this experience will be for her one of the pegs on which her faith is anchored and one she can look back to and confidently say: I needed the Holy Spirit’s help, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me and the Holy Spirit came through for me. Having put Biblical principles into practice, they are no longer just words that she’s reading in the Bible but the word of God come alive in practical life experience for her, and that is how our faith is built. Through reading the word of God and then living out that Word by putting it into practice as we are faced with various life experiences. Living out the principles we learn in the Bible and being firsthand witnesses to their truths.

Cultivating spiritual disciplines takes practice. Do not get frustrated if you constantly have to keep reminding your children (and yourself) to go to God first. This is part of the process. This is part of the training. Do not give up. Then in due season, you will reap the harvest of your labors.

Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

I recently did a study on the book of Romans where Paul is saying learn through life experience that God is good. Just as I was wondering how this would play out in my life, God allowed me to witness this beautiful child grow in faith through practical application of the word of God. God is faithful! As Numbers 23:19 puts it: God is no mere human! He doesn’t tell lies or change his mind. God always keeps his promises. He says in Isaiah 55:11 “That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.”