God Knows
Scripture tells us, repeatedly, that God knows our hearts. He knows how many hairs are on our head, He knows what we need, He knows the number of our days, He knows.
He knows our children. He knows what are children will be like in the age to come.
He knows about the hard times, the sweet times, the uncertain times. God knows.
God’s knowledge is foreknowledge. He knows the future. He is outside of time and sees the end from the beginning.
God is omniscient. He knows all things. He knows that which is secret and hidden. He sees unborn people in the womb. He sees.
God understands. When the LORD told Samuel to anoint young David he said,
"[F]or [Yahweh sees] not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b
We can take comfort in God’s understanding. Psalm 103 speaks of His compassion (Just read the whole Psalm. It’s included in my recent blog post about it.).
So, God knows, sees, understands, and has compassion.
We’re not omniscient, but we can show a similar empathy to our children. We can understand why they do some of the surprising things they do.
Sometimes it may mean that they have unmet needs, like the simple need for a nap.
Resting in our Heavenly Father’s love strengthens us to become conduits of His love who more effectively and accurately reflect His glory.
Which passages bring God’s truth and love to light for you?
Being a visual sort of person, I love biblical imagery.
For example, imagine the Good Shepherd carrying a little lamb.
Picture Jesus with a face full of faith as He calmed the storm at sea.
Maybe you’re more auditory. It's so helpful to listen to Scripture and Scripture songs.
Do toddler theology books have enough substance to feed your soul as you parent? Maybe not. But maybe they’re at least a little helpful. God’s Word doesn’t return void.
Hopefully, by choosing quality resources with relatively good doctrinal depth (for a toddler book), you’re able to tend your own relationship with the Lord while also preparing the soil of your little ones' hearts.
Three verses in Scripture (Deuteronomy 25:4, 1 Corinthians 9:9, and 1 Timothy 5:18) admonish us not to muzzle an ox while it is treading out grain. For me, a more relatable idea is the idea of my mulberry bush. You’ve probably heard the saying, “One for the box and one for me. One for the box and…” Eating mulberries while collecting them makes perfect sense.
Similarly, tasting God’s goodness while teaching others about Him and His loving compassion is completely natural (or supernatural as the case might be).
A number of kiddy books talk about God’s love. Of course I prefer books that directly talk about God’s love as shown through Jesus’s work on The Cross (Romans 5:8).
As we read these resources, let’s remember that God sees our ministry to our children and also that the love we tell them about is for us too. Praise God!
In Jesus,
Ruth
