Shepherding Our Child’s Image of God Podcast Episode

It’s hard to overstate it, to say something that grabs just how significant your picture of God, how you view who he is, how much that impacts all of how you walk through life. Welcome everyone to Breaking Bread, the podcast brought to you by Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services. 

Terrific to have you along. Brian Sutter’s with me. Brian, great to have you here. Great to be here with you, Matt. Today’s topic is Shepherding our Child’s Image of God or our perception of God and we’ve talked about this already. I think there was a two-part series that I did with Ted Witzig Jr. on this very topic and so today’s topic though, we’re going to really look at what that looks like informing that in children. 

Okay. Yeah, speak to that importance. We would say as believers, knowing God is such an important thing. And then the Scriptures would certainly echo that as well. And the opportunity, one of the things that we get to do as parents is to shape our kids’ view of lots of things. And this would certainly be on top of the pile as believing parents. 

And maybe we could even start that God has revealed himself. Yeah. It is so exciting, right? It is so exciting to know not only does God exist, but he has, he has given us revelation and lots of different ways and letters that he has composed in creation itself and the beauty and the wonder that’s there. So many different places that he has, like he wants us to know him and invites us into that, even though certainly we would say that understanding is going to have its limits and especially as we think of children, but how glorious to think of that, to step into that and just enjoy the journey. You know, I mean, certainly we’re going to go to the Scriptures and that’s the primary place. But as you mentioned, the heavens declared the glory of the Lord right there in the Psalms. 

God does intend to reveal himself in some surprising places and it takes maybe a discerning ear or a careful eye to see it. Right. To see those things and even to perhaps see those things that have misshaped or that have come alongside and distorted things. I’ll never forget, like even my son, my youngest, he’s a pretty visual little guy and you hear people talk about Jesus living in your heart. 

And he came to me a few years ago. He’s like, dad, when I was a little boy, I just thought for sure there was like a little space in my heart and there was like a little person living in it. Yeah, and to say, oh, well, sure that makes sense. And I think it speaks to just how much we want to be able to recognize those different places where he is revealed or where we say things intending one thing and they get construed another way. 

I think we could fill a whole episode of funny things that kids think. Yeah. And, you know, as I think of songs and hymns and what I thought. We were singing and then all of a sudden realized, oh, we were singing something completely different. For sure. Exactly. But that even speaks to this concept because we really want to talk about that audience of children and bearing all of that in mind is part of it. 

The vocabulary we use and the meaning that they construct out of that. Right. And just to think about the progression that a young mind goes through as a human being, thinking very concretely and then they can eventually move into grabbing ahold of abstract concepts where there’s nuance and like, oh, we don’t know for sure. 

Let’s talk about what we mean by God image, what we mean by a perception of God. Let’s nail that down and then we’ll get to how it’s constructed. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, if you think about just the way your mind works, most of us think in pictures that you think of. If I asked you about a flower. 

What happens? Well, you picture a flower in your mind, or you name anything that some kind of visual or language comes around it that paints a picture of what that is. And that would be the same for God image. And that’s essentially what we’re thinking of. What is the picture? How would you flesh that out with language or imagery that tells you this is who we are talking about. 

This is who God is, or this is what he looks like. This is how he acts. Those sorts of things. Yeah. And not only do pictures come to mind, but certain feelings come to mind. Sure. How do I feel about flowers? Exactly. And for somebody who might just enjoy flowers, might be very different than a kid growing up on a flower farm where that meant work. Exactly. 

Yeah. And I think that’s such a good point that a whole flood of things can come with that, and it can be a very rich experience in a lot of different ways. Whether that’s for the positive or the negative, and I think that’s just helpful to think of that or recognize that from the onset. So, as we talk about a God image here, this is this full picture of not only knowing academically who God is and he is this way, he’s omnipresent, for example. And these are facts, but also there’s experiential knowledge, which is kind of the meaning we make of all of those facts. Is that a good articulation of what we mean by a perception of God or a God image? I think those are good distinctions in the sense of there is information or the facts that you’re alluding to. 

And then there’s also just the imagination or, you know, what that actually means, or how you experience that, and those are both very, very real. Sometimes we can get caught on just the information. Certainly, we want to do that, and we want to flush that out and give good teaching, but then if we miss the whole other side of it, the imagination, and flushing those things out, then we’ve missed a lot. 

And I think, too, it also sets the stage that knowledge of God is not like a destination that you get to and that you’re done. Knowledge of God is this journey that you can’t exhaust. There’s just no way to exhaust it. And so that picture and how you view him is going to be ever shaping and if it’s shaped by the Scriptures and by truth, that is a great thing. 

What we want to inspire in our kids is a never-ending pursuit of the knowledge of God. Yes. Let’s speak now about the importance. Why is this so critical? How does one’s perception of God impact their life? Yeah. Wow. I mean, it’s hard to overstate it. You know, and that’s the part that’s tricky, like to say something that grabs just how significant it is, your picture of God, how you view who he is, how much that impacts all of how you walk through life. 

For example, if you go through difficulty, so we’re thinking about I as a parent or even just as a counselor I’m thinking about part of our job is to train our kids to engage in a broken world. That is going to be very difficult. And if their view of God can help support that and they can see God as a good loving father in the midst of that is so foundational that it just changes that whole picture. It doesn’t make it not hurt but it’s a very different experience versus if their view of God is this distant, uncaring, he’ll pull the rug out from you whenever he wants to. And he doesn’t really care if it’s hard for you or not. Like it just changes the whole thing.  

We can learn God is present every place, right? There’s a fact, but is God nearby? It’s another question, isn’t it? Right. Yeah, that has a direct impact on my mindset. Oh, incredible. Yeah, it does. Or just that God cares. Those really simple but profound statements that have such different implications. Yeah, it’s okay. So, I like that. God is near, God cares. Let’s add some more. What are some more really important handholds to help with their God image? So, I think another essential one would be just, God is good. That God is powerful, you know.  

So, we’re painting this picture of Him being sovereign, like in control, big, glorious. And yet, so you’re trying to capture the bigness of God as well as he’s right here with you. Exactly, that he cares and that he’s very personal, which is very unique to the Christian faith in a beautiful way. I think it was A. W. Tozer, who said that no religion rises above his concept of God. And so, in that sense, this is the governor. Our concept of God is the ceiling of the whole faith. Yeah. Is he a low God? Or is he a high God? And what you’re doing is you’re really advancing that ceiling. You’re pushing up because we can’t get it high enough, which I think casts a neat vision.  

How could I communicate that to my kids? How can I help them catch that? And I think even in that, as I say those things, certainly as I interact with my kids, there’s times we run into things or experience things, or we talk about things that bring these things into question. And to be honest about that, like, boy, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around God being in control and this thing happening across the globe or whatever it would be. 

Okay. So that’s exactly where I was thinking, too, with even that example. Our kids do come to points of crisis, don’t they? They come to points of crisis. We all come to points of crisis. It’s not a kid thing. Sure. Where what they’ve previously understood about the perception of God is now called into question. How do we as parents steward that? What does that look like? Yeah. I think the biggest thing I would encourage is to not be fearful of that. To see that is really actually part of development of faith and development of just relying on God and learning what it looks like to trust him and to persevere and really I think in many ways to lean on what we would say God has revealed about himself so what we know about him even when it doesn’t match what we’re seeing or feeling to learn how to be a little bit more skeptical towards that versus what we would say, oh, this is what he says and I’m going to try to trust that even though I don’t know how to make sense out of that for me. 

I want to push this a little bit further, keep going down this trail, because right now deconstructing faith is a buzzword in the Christian faith community, right? And I think we could probably have somebody come in the room and say, yes, my God image was formed and now I’m deconstructing my faith. So, help our listeners understand what’s going on in that person? You know, what should we take away from what we’re seeing and what’s good? What’s bad? Is this a fair question?  

Yeah, sure. Well, I think one of the things, what I would say is that in many ways, an unhelpful goal in my mind is moving away from something. So, if our goal is I’m going to just move away from this thing, whatever that is, that’s a goal that will always get us into trouble. And I think deconstruction in many ways, that’s what the goal is. I’m here. This is what I’ve believed in. This has been my faith. This is what I’ve grown up with. This is what I’ve known. 

And I’m just going to move away from that. And deconstruction, if that’s the goal, just leads us into wherever from there. And so, this is not a moving away from, this is a thinking and considering and moving towards, that’s a deconstruction. You could call it that if you’re thinking through the lens of reorganizing or letting our view of things be refined. 

And that’s a good kind of deconstruction, if you will, but what we hear in the culture is really more of a running away from instead of reconstruction. Oh, reconstruction. That’s a great word. Perhaps that should be the word we’re using. Yes. I’m reconstructing my faith right now. 

Yeah. Speak to the importance, perhaps, of that, or the relevance, or the need in some cases. Well, for sure. I mean, all of us would agree wholeheartedly that sanctification is part of what we are to do as believers, meaning that we’re going to be growing, and as we have more experiences and we go through difficulties, that our faith, our hope, are going to be grown and multiplied. 

You know, in Romans there, I think it talks of that. And to see that as part of the journey with Christ, part of our Christian walk, rather than something to be fearful of or to see that as a negative or a bad thing. Yeah. Let’s take this situation. You mentioned it, right? Kid comes home. What am I to make of the atrocities in this world, for example? And what does that mean about a good God and all of that type of thing? Can we, as parents, jump on that too quickly? Can we try to correct it in unhelpful ways? I’m pretty sure panic is probably not encouraged. Yeah. Anyway, I’d love your thoughts on that particular moment.  

But no, like I think for all of us, like that’s scary. Yeah. You know, and I think you’re right, that if we’re not careful, it can move us into panic. And so probably the first step should just be to take a couple deep breaths and like, whoo, and to acknowledge that for most of us, we have those same questions that they’re asking. And sometimes we’ve kind of quieted them enough, either through healthy ways or unhealthy ways. 

And so, when they come back on the surface to see that as really a great opportunity. And I think to start slowly and try to hear what they are talking about and what they are thinking about, what did they hear, I think would be a good starting point. Yeah. Okay. So just to give that some space, normalize it a bit. And then allow for that safety to happen for our kids to bring that forward.  

Yep. I think so. And in that, then we can engage in that discussion. And I think in many ways, for me, it’s helpful to then zoom out and say, okay, well, let’s just remember the storyline of the Bible. And I think that’s a helpful goal as we think about a God image as well as just a timeline or a storyline of the Scriptures for that to be part of what we’re trying to plant in their minds. And therefore, part of that storyline is that suffering, that difficulty really comes from man because of our rebellion and that God joins us in that rather than he’s mean and harsh and just trying to come after us. Some basic things like that.  

Okay. So, in that explanation, this is what I picked up, Brian, while the young person might be struggling at a core because they feel like God is somebody different than who they first thought he was. What you’ve encouraged them is to say, no, the answer is in a God image. It’s just a correct one. Right. And I would have to believe that if we understood God perfectly, it would make sense. It would make sense. Yeah, but to see in this moment of crisis that God image is not in the crosshairs as much as it’s in the answer, right? Yeah, I think it is an important shift in my mind? 

Yes. I think so, too. Okay, so you mentioned imagination. Let’s go down this trail now that says what are the tools in the parent toolbox to help our young people, our children, our young adults have strong and accurate God images. So that imagination, I think, is such a neat way to think about impacting them and helping their mind enliven and be curious in this area. 

Kids are masters of imagination. Right. I mean, this is their thing. This is what they do far better than us. Right. So, to engage their imagination sounds like, duh, why didn’t I think of that? So, say more. Yeah. Well, I think even just reading stories Chronicles of Narnia with our kids, for example, like they were young enough that they didn’t capture most of it. 

But just the thought of like, oh, there’s this lion that’s a protector and he shows up and like these people they mess everything up and somehow he’s still there, but this lion sometimes acts in ways they don’t expect, but he’s always for them. And you see the characters in the story wrestling with this and trying to, and I’m kind of scared of him. 

Exactly. I love him. Exactly. It’s just beautiful. It’s just really fun. And you see them get into it and they’re wrestling with it, and it brings a little bit different questions or a little bit different feel and just really fun. Yeah. Story is a way they get to experience something.  

Exactly. In a really safe way. Yep. It does. It grabs their minds and they get to wrestle with and think about that in a way that helps start to form some things that can be quite helpful or, you know, things to work with for them that weren’t there before. There are other on ramps into forming God image. 

Right. Well, certainly the scriptures are a perfect and a central place. Right. There’s other things at our disposal. Yes, very much so. And even in that, like the examples you’re talking about, like, the Old Testament in particular gives so many rich pictures of God, and we could use that. God is a rock. What does that  mean? 

And like using the imagery of that and just exploring that for a little bit and just like, huh, what could that have meant? Or, you know, like you’re saying there, pictures and finding a place that can get them curious and get their mental faculties engaged, whatever they are. Yeah. So, one of the things that fits into this conversation that we’re doing at home, we’re working at memorizing Psalm 121, which is a really just great set of verses that are really well known. 

But one of the verses towards the end says, and God will keep you from all evil. And so, it paints this picture of who God is. And that’s a really wonderful, exciting verse that’s there and yet to then move into conversation. It’s been fun to have conversations. Okay. What do you think that actually means, or what does that look like? 

And that’s been helpful because I think we don’t want our kids to walk away and say, well, if I follow Jesus, that means no evil happens. He’s going to keep me from that. Well, because that’s what it says. But then what does that mean? And just exploring that I think can be helpful. And I would have to believe it’s okay to understand that verse at the 10-foot level, and then trusting that when we get to the 100 foot level, that verse will become understood as it needs to be at the 100 foot level. Right. Oh, what does being kept from evil mean? I formerly thought this, but now I see it as that. That has got to be a part of the maturing process. 

Exactly. And even just planting seeds, that as we learn about God, that it will be a maturing process. And as we experience different things, there’ll be richness that’s added to that. And just to be able to say, okay, this is where it was at. This is what I was thinking. And as I mature, and I experience other things that shape my view of that, we’ll be impacted. And that’s a good thing. I like it. Yeah.  

Share with us, maybe in closing, some of your favorite go tos. Well, I think particularly with young kids, one of the resources that Allison and I have really enjoyed is just the Jesus Story Bible. It’s really simple and it’s just always kind of gets you starting to think about how this story points towards Christ and the beauty of Christ. 

And again, I’ll never forget when we started doing family devotions, you know, sit down and read how much of a disaster that was. And like it was there’s nothing coming in, nothing’s impacting them, but just to hang in there and try to do that because, you know, it’s good practice if nothing else, but I think more is getting in than what we realized. 

But then children’s books that do ignite that imagination and paint pictures like Max Lucado or C. S. Lewis. And there’s just so many of those and just to really draw on the great authors and resources that are out there that help us shape their imagination and shape their view of God. 

One resource we’ve enjoyed is watching The Chosen. Oh, sure. We’ve watched a couple seasons of it as a family. Yeah. It’s been fun and I feel like that also has struck the imagination for our kids. Yeah, that’s a great example of if you can see it and you see something unfold, it’s like, oh, interesting. 

I wonder if it was like that. Yeah. It just gets you viewing and thinking about it in a little bit different way, which I think is really helpful. Like you said earlier, catechisms and just focusing really on some of the information, I think, are certainly helpful things to build out those skeletons. 

One of the ministries that we found some help with is Tiny Theologians. They do a lot of resources for kids and so we just recently finished going through the alphabet and each letter said a truth about God. And so, we went through those and that was a really fun exercise and stirred up some good conversation. 

So, those would be some examples or things to think about that, especially with younger kids or starting when those early teen years would be things I think to think about. I like that. I think the last one that we’ve used that I found really helpful is Theology. It is a book that goes through and starts to teach some kind of systematic theology. 

And there’s certainly a section in there on God and who he is. And they do a good job of using that imagination, kind of connecting with kids in their world and things that would excite their imagination and get them drawn into a story. So, I think that would be another resource that we found helpful. 

Brian, what really comforts me is we do have a charge as parents to help form and steward the God image that our children have. But what brings me a lot of comfort is God is pursuing my child intent on revealing himself. Yeah. And he hopes that he has me to work with to get his job done. Sure. But that is a very different scenario than me trying to help them understand George Washington. 

Yes. Because there is no force outward getting that job done. Yeah. Does that make sense? Oh. I think that is so exciting. So exciting. And I think it speaks right there. Like you’re sharing part of your God image, right? And I think that’s so important for parents as we think about this space to recognize our own image of who God is and to make sure that’s shaped by the Scriptures. 

And it’s helpful like that. We do see him as a good God who is pursuing us and is pursuing our kids and that we’re not alone in this. I think that’s great. So, thanks, each one. I hope that this blessed you as parents, as you think about your children, perhaps are inspired by some of the examples or the resources Brian has brought forward here in this conversation, but just encouragement, if nothing else, just encouragement to continue to let God reveal himself to our kids, be patient with bumpy roads, because they’ll be there, and probably there’s no healthy person that hasn’t. Is that a true statement, Brian? I think so. Yeah, the challenges and the things where we do get bumped off course are a lot of times part of the journey as we develop an accurate and good view of God. 

And probably every parent has experienced the thought of I thought I taught them this, or I thought I raised them differently, or I thought I helped, you know, this was clear. Oh, for sure. And certainly, you even see that in kids that you know have grown up in really good homes that have done a lot of wonderful teaching. 

And then they’re like, I just learned this, like, wait, I know you’ve been taught that a thousand times. And so that’s just part of the journey. God is so patient with all of us, with our kids, he will be as well. So, thanks so much. I appreciate it.