Teaching your kids about the bible is as easy as teaching a two-year old to sort laundry. Don’t think a two-year-old can sort laundry? A two-year old can recognize and match colors, and so a two-year old can sort laundry. Do you have a toddler at home? Try this: Attach tags with colored circles on the bins where you want clothes of the same color to go. Show your toddler how to hold clothes up to the tags to match the colors.
Soon enough, your toddler will be sorting your laundry for you.
Teaching your kids about the bible is no different. If you want your children to understand biblical truth you must relate it to what they can see and already understand. You would not write the word “darks” on a label for a child who cannot read and expect that child to place dark colored clothes in the basket. Likewise, it is equally as unreasonable to read to your child a verse about “sin” and expect to see drastic changes in your child’s behavior, motives and attitudes. You must explain words like “sin” in a way the child can understand.
Laundry time is a great time for teaching on sin. We separate our laundry. Why? Because we
have seen what happens when we don’t. A white sock turns a dingy grey after being washed with the dark colored clothes. Can it be made white again? It can but it must be separated from the darks, soaked in water with bleach and washed all over again. Then our sock can be made soft and warm by the heat of our dryer. We can see the process and we understand it.
Likewise, to remain pure in heart we must intentionally separate ourselves from the dirt and the darkness. Yet, every day life throws a lot of dirt on us and it is easy to get mixed in with things we should not. The good news is that God is always willing to clean us up.
The Bible is like a faithful washing machine that is always ready to be opened up with the power to agitate us and send our hearts spinning. The blood of Christ and the Spirit of God, like bleach and water, were
poured out to remove the stains of our sin. God’s love is like a dryer that warms and softens our hearts and over time straightens us out. This is the process of sanctification; the process of being cleaned up by God.
We are blessed to live in a country and time where modern day appliances make it easy to cleanse our dirty clothes. We are even more blessed to live in a country and time where the Word of God is so readily available to cleanse our hearts. When your clothes or your heart need cleansed, make the choice to separate the light from the dark. It is a choice that matters most in keeping your clothes and your heart looking new.
Create in me a clean heart,
O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
-Psalm 51:10
