The Most Critical Years for a Child’s Spiritual Growth

The experts say that a child’s most formative years are their youngest — from birth to age five.

About 90 percent of a child’s brain develops in that time, according to studies. And 85 percent of a child’s intellect, personality, and social skills are developed by age five.

This begs the question, Is this also true with spiritual education? 

Are the preschool years the most critical for a child’s relationship with God?

Personally, I think that most of us sell preschoolers short.

When I first started teaching kids, I was helping my youth pastor plant a new church.

I don’t recommend this, but I had all of the kid’s ages 3-12 in one room. (Admittedly, it was challenging finding messages that worked for that wide of an age span.)

One Sunday, we had a family visit with a three-year-old and an eight-year-old.

I was teaching on the Sword of the Spirit. I used a real machete for the Sword of the Spirit and some apples to represent the works of the enemy, like fear.

I quoted scriptures like “God has not given me a spirit of fear,” as I threw apples in the air and sliced them with the machete.

I was a little concerned at what Brooke, the three-year-old thought of my sermon.

I was relieved to see her family return the following week.

When Brooke’s parents dropped her off, they told me they came back to our church because Brooke said, “Mom, Dad, I want to go to the apple-slicing church.”

I have no way to measure how much Brooke understood about my sermon, but I am confident she understood more than I gave her credit for.

Here is a quote from an article by Mackenzie Ryan in the Statesman’s Journal.

“The preschool years are a critical time for a child to build the foundation for literacy, which is really about the early relationship a child develops with a parent or caregiver.

Research shows that these relationships — the frequency a parent reads to a child, the number of words a parent speaks to a child — can affect that student’s academic achievement years later.

A landmark 1995 study showed that how fast a child’s vocabulary grows is greatly influenced by how often their parents talk to them.”

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that a child’s spiritual growth is greatly influenced by how often God talks to them.

As teachers, our job is not to be a substitute parent, but to create environments where God can speak to kids.

Have you asked yourself this question, “How do I make the Word of God simple enough for a preschooler to understand?”

This is a perfect spot for me to share some exciting news…

We’ve created curriculum for 3 to 5-year-olds called Kinder Church 2.0.

You get the same depth of teaching that you already like about Super Church, but we have also added fun-filled games, powerful media elements, small group curriculum, parent curriculum and social media tools to reach tech-savvy parents.

More great news – Buy 2 – Get 1 FREE!

Click here for more info about Kinder Church 2.0.