Shepherd the Flock

My daughter, Hannah Grace, turns 2 years old next week, and she is just now starting to put sentences together as opposed to just fragments of words (a BIG step!). Having already established in her somewhat of an understanding of Jesus, God, prayer, church, singing, preaching, reading the Bible, worship, etc. (it is adorable to hear her try and describe these things, as it’s usually a fragment like ‘Pray Jesus’, or ‘Bible God’, or ‘Church pray’), we have also been working about a month now on on catechizing her.

For our text, we have been using Tom Ascol’s excellent little book, Truth & Grace Memory Book #1. It contains a great little children’s baptist catechism, along with scripture and hymn memory plans for ages 2 and up. We’ve been working on the first two questions, ‘Who made you?‘ – ‘God made me‘, and ‘What else did God make?‘ – ‘God made all things‘. So far, we’ve gotten her to repeat the answers to us (which was wonderful to hear), but she has yet to memorize them word for word.

From my own experience, I can’t think of anything more ‘devotional’ than reading through the catechism or parts of it a couple of times a week. I absolutely love the WESTMINSTER SHORTER and LARGER CATECHISM. Another catechism that I am really starting to enjoy is the Heidelberg Catechism. This material, mark my words, is profound! –And profoundly simple!

As the great CH Spurgeon once said regarding his flock,

“Our children who have learned ‘the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of Faith” [referring to the Catechism, modified on the point of baptism only], know more about the doctrines of grace and the Bible than hundreds of grown-up people who attend a ministry which very eloquently teaches nothing.” – quoted from Spurgeon V. Hyper-Calvinism, P14

True indeed, how many adults attend churches now days that very eloquently teach nothing? It has been rightly said that the American Church is a thousand miles wide and an inch deep.

May we not hide these truths from our children, but tell them to the coming generation! I encourage you to go through these catechism’s yourself, no matter where you are spiritually or doctrinally, and drink deep from the wells of knowledge that are to be found in each and every question/answer.