Children are naturally inquisitive. They have much to learn about life and why we do the things we do. Every parent has experienced the barrage of “why” questions from their child about every step of everything they are doing. As parents, we have been given, by God, the privilege of answering these endless amounts of questions from our toddlers, kids, preteens and teens. It is a task, that while tiresome at times, should be looked on as bearing eternal significance.

When your kids ask you about why you are following God, what is your natural response?

In Deuteronomy 6:20-25 as Moses was instructing the people of Israel on how they were to live in the promised land, He gives parents a word about how they were to answer one of the most significant questions that their children will ask them, “Why do you follow the commands and ways of God?”

“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?'”

Moses expected the parents have an answer for the questions their kids will have about why they are following God. Notice the response he gave them.

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.

Parents were to tell their children that it is because God, the God who is one, the God who reigns over all of creation, has redeemed us from the despondent and miserable state of slavery in which we once lived (Exodus 1:10-14).

Their answer was to be a proclamation of the redemption that God wrought for them by His great power. It was to be a response full of wonder and awe as they declared God’s magnificent act of deliverance. And not only that, their response was also to communicate the love for God that they had in their obedience to Him because of the grace and mercy in which He treated them.

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.’

Are you in awe of God’s redeeming work in your life or has the business of the daily grind dimmed your appreciation for the saving mighty hand of God? Do you obey God out of loving gratitude for the unmerited favor He has poured out on you through His Son Jesus?

When your children ask you about why you are following a God that you cannot see, tell them the story of His redemptive work in your life. Tell them that you were once a slave to sin dead in your trespasses, condemned to hell, and that you walked according to the ways of this world as an enemy of God. Tell them that despite this, because of the great love with which He loved you, God made you alive in Jesus Christ. It’s not because you deserved it but because He chose you before the foundations of the world to pour out His grace and mercy on you, adopting you through Jesus Christ to Himself to be His sons and daughters all to the praise of His Glorious Holy Name!!! And now you follow Him out of love, finding your fullest satisfaction in Him!!