Is it right to make children behave?

John Piper answers the question, 'Why require unregenerate children to act like they’re good?' with three main points:

1. For children, external, unspiritual conformity to God’s commanded patterns of behavior is better than external, unspiritual non-conformity to those patterns of behavior.
2. Requiring obedience from children in conformity with God’s will confronts them with the meaning of sin in relation to God, the nature of their own depravity, and their need for inner transformation by the power of grace through the gospel of Christ.
3. The marks of devotion, civility, and manners (“please,” “thank you,” and good eye contact) are habits that, God willing, are filled later with grace and become more helpful ways of blessing others and expressing a humble heart.

Five things that are true about every child

From a talk by Paul Tripp.

1. They were created by God to be revelation receivers.

They were never wired to figure life out on their own. You'll never ever know the things you need to know by just using the process of human discovery. You have to have supernatural revelation.

2. They are by nature interpreters.

Human beings do not live life based on the facts of our experience. We live life based upon the interpretation of the facts. We're meaning makers.

3. They are worshipers.

Human experience is not the most essential thing about the human experience. Worship is. It's what we're born doing and what we continue to do all of our lives.

4. They are hard-wired to seek glory.

We're glory oriented. Glory is why we like chocolate mousse cake and great movies and the last quarter of basketball games. And glory is why we exalt ourselves over others around us: we want to get as much as we can for ourselves.

5. They are self-focused and self-obsessed.

Sin causes us to shrink our lives down to the claustrophobic confines of our lives, our wants and our needs. It makes us incapable of loving anyone else.

God Is Writing Our Story, Not Us

Because these 5 things are true of all of us, as God is writing the story of our lives, we're always inclined to try and take the pen from him so we can write it ourselves.

The Bible is one long story with God's notes. Ministry to children—or ministry to anyone else—means helping them forsake the urge to write their own story, and accept instead that God is the author. Then their story will be embedded in God's larger story of redemption, so that in every circumstance they recognize that their life is about and for God.

Seven ideas for teaching toddlers God's Word

From Abraham Piper:

1. Have an open Bible on your lap during story time. This reinforces where the story comes from—God's word.

2. Use short sentences and few words. Too many words overwhelm young minds.

3. Be animated in your facial expressions and tone of voice. This will help keep children engaged.

3. Incorporate movement into the story and singing. Children this age need to move their bodies. Movement helps them learn and remember what you're teaching them.

4. Create routines during the story/circle times by using songs, finger plays, etc.

5. Use repetition to cement biblical concepts in children's hearts and minds.

6. Keep it short and sweet. A story time of 5-10 minutes is the maximum children this age can attend to and sit for.