Teaching Children to Have Faith by Mrs. Luella B. Priddy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 26, 1907

Teaching Children to Have Faith

By Mrs. Luella B. Priddy

MRS. LUELLA B. PRIDDY

“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom. 10:17. All true faith is based upon a knowledge of God's truth. In order for the child to have faith, he must have a knowledge of God's plans and purposes. There is much that passes for faith in the world that is founded upon human desires, emotions, or opinions, and like the house upon the sand, will fall when the storm attacks it.

In the near future the children of this generation are to be brought into trying places such as no other generation has known. It is important for them to have a knowledge of the events that precede the second coming of Christ. It is also needful for them to be familiar with God's dealings with his people in past ages, and with the facts that show the hand of Providence in founding the remnant church.

The children of Israel were instructed to teach their children of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and the signs and wonders that God wrought for them. When they failed to do this, their children drifted away from the true faith.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Teach the children that the same God who delivered Daniel from the lions' den, and Peter from prison, and who fed Elijah by the brook, lives and reigns to-day, and that he will be the help of his people.

Bible stories are of absorbing interest; but they are more than pleasant tales of long ago. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11. When God's children have been brought into perilous places where no human hand could deliver them, there divine power has been manifested.

Amid the disasters that are becoming more and more frequent, we have no assurance that we shall never meet with financial loss, or that we shall altogether escape difficulties. But we have the promise that we shall be kept, and that bread shall be given, and water shall be sure. If our own hearts are full of anxious care for the future, how can we teach the children lessons of trust? As parents go about their daily tasks, little, wondering eyes look on at what they do, and sharp ears listen. If seeds of doubt and distrust are planted in their hearts, there may spring up a crop that we will not care to reap.

Talking faith increases our own faith, and helps others to have faith. We may be brought into places of perplexity. At times we may have to feel the cold Red Sea waters splashing against our feet, before we are permitted to see the waves parting before us. But God will open the way, and we can tell the children that he will. Teach them that whatever God gives is enough. However limited our visible resources, God can make them enough. Five barley loaves and two small fishes given by a little lad, multiplied in the hands of the Lord, and fed five thousand men.

Teach the children to avoid debt even in a good cause. If it is a cause that God has assured us must be carried forward, he will provide a way for his own work, if we are obedient and trust him.

Let us express confidence in the way he is leading us, and in the way he is carrying forward his work in the earth. We can not speak lightly of the minister and talk over what may be considered his faults, and expect the children to have confidence in him as God's messenger. When they hear the truth from his lips, it will seem to them as idle tales. Teach them to respect those whom God has called to positions of responsibility.

Disparaging remarks regarding brethren and sisters in the church will convey the impression that we are connected with a cause that we condemn, and will not lead the listener to have faith in it. Let us be what we would have the children among us be.

Markham, Ontario.