Our congregation is small. Most of the time, I have one student. A class with one student is still a class worth teaching. In fact, one-on-one teaching provides opportunities that are much harder to find in a larger group. I can listen to every question, follow his interests, recognize when something isn’t connecting, and adjust the lesson to what he needs that day. The goal isn’t to get through the material. The goal is to teach the child in front of me.

The first and most important “rule” in teaching, no matter the age or size of your audience, is your willingness to listen. The second is cultivating critical thinking and teaching how to find Biblical answers to any question.

At least five times during the class, a child will ask, “Can I tell you something?” I always stop, make eye contact, and say, “Yes.” While he tells me whatever is on his mind, I listen and respond. Because he is typically the only student in the class, there have been times when the lesson is disregarded because what he needs is to cry and be held. There have been days when the lesson is shorter, and he shows me how fast he can run around the table. When we teach children, we must be in tune with their needs. I still talk to him or sing as he snuggles or runs around the room. He knows he is safe and loved when he is with me, even when I set boundaries. Listening does not mean abandoning the lesson. Listening helps us know how to connect what we are teaching to the child in front of us.

No matter what age I teach, I often feel like I gain more than the students. I learn more as I study and adapt to the ages and stages of the children. When I teach, I also learn from them. The observations children make reflect their understanding and experience. Their questions provide opportunities, even for the teacher, to learn and grow.

Teaching children to love Jesus and follow God’s Will is about much more than the rules or a collection of stories and memory verses. Share what the love of Jesus means to you. Share how following God has challenged you and helped you in your life—yes, even with 3–4-year-olds! Help them write God’s Word on their hearts so that as they grow, they understand and apply the rules and stories in their own lives.

Children need more than opportunities to hear us talk about following Jesus. They need to see us follow Him, and they need opportunities to follow Him beside us.

When it comes to serving, I do not tell children they are too young or too little. In my family, my children are included in everything I do. I grew up with this example, so it was natural for me. I enjoy making meals for new moms, someone who’s recently had surgery, or those who’ve lost loved ones. My kids work alongside me, and we often make the deliveries together.

In the Old Testament, we are instructed to teach our children “as we go.” Hundreds of years later, Jesus tells us to “go” and share the Gospel. Go does not always mean leaving one place to do something in another. Go often means taking action right where you are.

My job as a mom is to prepare my children to go into the world. When they are little, you teach them to look (“Watch where you are going!”) and listen (“Follow directions!”). These same lessons hold great value as we grow up and go about in the world. Look for ways to serve, listen to the needs of others, and take action.

Teach them about Jesus as you go. Better yet, take them with you.

I am a preacher’s kid, and my dad is my favorite preacher. I even have a favorite sermon! As children, my siblings and I referred to it as “the parrot sermon” because of the illustration. The sermon’s actual title is “Who Will Teach the Children?” using Scriptures from the book of Deuteronomy.

Teaching your children becomes a new challenge when you add homeschooling to everything else you do in a day. Truthfully, I feel like I’m the one doing all the learning as I figure out what works for my child, how to give attention to my toddler and assist my school kid, and relearn things I used to know (or learn more about whatever subjects “we” are interested in on a particular day).

Quite honestly, most days I fail in patience. Many days are met with some amount of resistance, including silly guessing, which is funny at the end of the day but not at the moment when a child has been trying to add 2+1 for fifteen minutes simply for the sake of silliness.

Some days, the “school” part seems utterly pointless. On those days, I have to look at the other things I’m teaching my children. My children are polite, helpful, and loving. I hope that has everything to do with the example we are setting as parents.

In my dad’s sermon, he talks about the stages of faith, taken from John Westerhoff’s Will Our Children Have Faith? Those stages are experienced faith (a faith you are born into, believing because your parents believe), affiliative faith (belonging to a community, believing because the group believes), searching faith (beginning to question “why,” typically during the adolescent or young adult years), and finally an owned faith (strong, personal faith grounded in “I know” statements).

Sadly, many people never pass the second stage.

Children must be taught before they can believe, but they also have to be taught how and why to believe.

I teach this the only way I know: by DOING.

In our current time of transition, I’ve had to answer many questions with, “I don’t have that answer right now, but when I do, I will tell you.” Much more importantly, I’ve been able to share a deeper part of faith with my six-year-old.

These days I’m peaceably in pieces. I KNOW God is taking care of everything and will continue to do so because He has in the past. I KNOW His plan for our lives is good and perfect (Romans 12:1–2), and that He gives us everything we need (2 Peter 1:3–4).

I don’t always think my son is listening or paying attention, but last weekend, while talking to my dad on Skype, he surprised me once again. We were talking about not knowing where we would live and our stuff being sent into storage.

My son said, “But God’s going to point us in the right direction!”