Quotes About God

Rayleen talking to Billy.] "Grace is thriving here, and I dare anybody to challenge that. Anybody who has a problem with that can come take it up with me." "Thank God," Billy said, "because I really hate it when people come take things up with ME.

The moon shows it all. Thank god the moon is on my side. I'll need a piece of that, a piece of Sarah, all of myself and all of Simon.

We want our children to obey God because they do not want to cause grief to the one who loves them. As they become aware of their moral failures, we also want them to discover that their loving God forgives and wants to help children to do the right thing. The importance of the initial love relationship with God cannot be overemphasized; everything else in spiritual formation builds on it in the proper time.

In formal education, children are introduced to new ideas about God and must reconcile their image of God with what the teacher tells them about God. As we teach children, at home and in the church, we do not give them our understanding of God; rather, we guide them as they reshape their God in the light of what they learn from us and in their ever expanding life experiences.[19]

Biblical stories play an important role in the elementary child's search for answers. Coles found that children relate the experiences of biblical characters to the events of their own lives. As children think about these stories, they see themselves in the characters and see God working and relating to those biblical people. Certain stories grab children, inspire their imagination, and draw them to reflect on life, meaning, and God.

Adults must never discourage a child who desires to respond to God. When children know that God invites them to come and they are ready for a response, they do not need severe external pressure. They simply need a setting for response and possibly an adult to guide them, pray with them, and affirm their encounter with God.

If we truly are created in God's image, we must know God in order to fully know ourselves and who we can be. God has equipped human beings to begin that quest very early,

chose to be revealed through the stories of the Bible, stories of God actively relating to people, and stories of God becoming flesh and living among those people. To know God we must know the stories of God,

The spiritual journey is not a path separate from the rest of life, walked by one's spirit. It is the path of everyday living where God meets and walks with us, where we respond to God with our whole developing self. The journey begins at conception and continues until we no longer walk this earth.

Although God respects our freedom of choice and our children may reject grace, I believe their choice is influenced toward God when we give them to God, trust them to grace, and open ourselves to reflect God's love.

is often considered to be something children use in play and then discard when they become adults and put away childish things. We are therefore not surprised to learn that children use their imagination to enter stories, to experience them, and even to meet God there, but few adults think of using their imagination to meet God. However, following the lead of children could enrich the spiritual walk for adults.

Children form their image of God in the context of relating to their parents and other significant adults.

Imagination is the power to form in our minds the images of reality. Fowler sees imagination as a powerful force in all learning not just in faith development. When young children use imagination to form their image of God, they are using a natural tool for learning.

The church has a greater potential than any other institution for providing the community so desperately needed by persons of all ages; it is the means God designed to provide support and resources for life's journey.

We often try to compete with the rapid paced entertainment of television, seldom giving children a quiet moment in which to meet God, and many children lose touch with the God for whom their hearts hunger.

Yes, our children must one day make the faith their own and give themselves to God, but God graciously draws them toward that day. Although God respects our freedom of choice and our children may reject grace, I believe their choice is influenced toward God when we give them to God, trust them to grace, and open ourselves to reflect God's love.

We need not fear that children with creative imaginations will make God into nothing more than their other fantasies. The unseen God is real to children.

God's design is to work through the everyday relationships of parents and children to provide children with experiences that prepare them for faith.

When we give children opportunity to meet God, we are not attempting to force something unnatural on them. Children are born with the potential for spiritual experience, and God is the one who stimulates the activation of that potential.

God wants children to live in homes and a community where the laws of God are not just recited and talked about but lived. Children need to see and experience the faith in action.

Teaching children is important for adults as well as children. As we tell children the stories of the faith, talk with them about God, and answer their questions, we refocus on God.

The Spirit of God knows the mind and heart of the child and how best to communicate. We must never forget that we are merely assistant teachers or worship leaders, but God does give us the privilege of assisting, and he honors us by sometimes speaking through us to the children.[21]

God becomes increasingly real to children as they have opportunity to participate with us in the living of our faith and in the worship of God spontaneously in the flow of everyday life and in the gatherings of the faith community.

Since the tendency to create an image of God seems to exist within young children whether or not they have religious influences in their home, I would say that this tendency is a creation gift from the Creator God.