Getting a toddler excited about God

I've always heard every youth pastor say, you can't just take your child to church on Sunday and expect us to do all the work.  If you want your kids to have a faith that lasts, you need to be talking about God all day, every day.  I totally agreed with it.  I totally understood it.  And I 100% supported what they said.  Silently committing to be the parent who shares Christ with their child daily. 

Until I had my own kid.

I'm not saying I don't want to talk with Jake about Jesus. And I'm not saying that I myself only think about God on Sundays, but honestly, trying to talk about God to a 3 year old can be hard.  How do I make it relevant?  Jake seems to look away anytime I try to share something about God.  How do I make prayer fun?  (Instead of forcing Jake to not hum or sing every time I start to pray lol) I know God's word is powerful and I don't need to share the gospel daily using Mickey Mouse analogies or bribing with fruit snacks, but honestly I get stuck.  It's so easy for me to simply say a quick prayer at meals, throw on a veggie tales DVD, or read a Bible story at night, and assume I've done my duty as a godly parent, but I find myself craving something more.

 I LOVE Deuteronomy 6 where God says, "You shall teach them (God's commandments) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  I want to be a mom who naturally talks about God.  Who is thanking God throughout the day and pointing out to Jake how God has provided.  I want to stop during our day and pray for Dan or our friends.  I want to be a blessing to our friends by showing them love and I want to show Jake how God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  And I want Jake to listen and get excited about God.  I just don't seem to do it that often, and when I do, it seems like Jake is more interested in the ant crawling on the side walk than me pointing out how awesome God's creation is. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that my efforts are all in vain, it would just be nice to have Jake seem just 50% interested in what I'm saying whenever the topic of God comes up. 

Recently, I purchased a book on our kindle titled, "I can learn the Bible, " for kids, and something the author, Holly Shivers, said in it was super convicting, "We cannot make every "right" decision for our children, nor should we.  We cannot be ever present, and the older they become, the less and less they need us.  That is why we must do what we can while they are young.  We want to turn them toward the one thing- rather, the one Person- who will be there for them: the Person of Jesus, and His living and active Word hidden deep in their hearts."  I loved this quote.  One thing we can do for our kids right now is give them scripture to take with them.  And scripture is powerful- it is truth and will convict their hearts later on when they are presented with decisions regarding loving a mean classmate, or being honest, or showing kindness.  There will be a day when I cannot kindly encourage/ force Jake to share his toys with his friend. 

So, Dan showed me this app called "scripture typer."  It's an app that helps you memorize scripture, so I've created different categories for myself and Jake.  For Jake, I thought through what could be most helpful for him at this stage of life.  So, I found a verse about anger, being kind, and being thankful.  There are many other areas but those are the ones I am focusing on, and I currently am memorizing the verses.  I definitely want to help Jake memorize them, but I figured if I want to share scripture with Jake in the moment, I need to have it memorized.  So I am currently working on memorizing scripture, and I hope to get a chalk board to help him memorize scripture as well.  At church, he has memorized two verses and it's crazy how quickly he catches on and how much he loves memorizing things.  And they have cute little hand motions and actions that go along with their verses, so I *may* need to try to come up with those to make it more fun ;)

Anyway, I just thought I would share what the Lord is convicting me of and teaching me!  I would LOVE to hear any other practical ways you are sharing the gospel with your toddler throughout the day!  I honestly have read so many books and they have great ideas, but many of them are a little over Jake's head, so I'm trying to find things that will make sense to him.  Any tips would be MUCH appreciated!

Here are some pictures I've taken lately :)  Mainly from baseball games because those are Jake's favorite currently!