The book of Genesis is very helpful in helping children understand sin. When teaching kids about sin, I like to start at the beginning! ( How’s that for a unique method?) When telling this story, I like to read the account from the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1   Be sure to read these first two chapters together.  Read with confidence, declaring the beauty of the beginning. (No, some slime did NOT crawl out of a pond and turn into a frog that turned into a bird that turned into monkeys that turned into people.)

Chapter 3 starts the story of Adam and Eve.  From this story children need to grasp that Eve had a choice, and she chose to disobey God. Adam had a choice, and he chose to disobey God.  That choice was costly, it cost Adam and Eve eternal bliss in the garden with God, and it cost us this priveledge too.  (Sin always hurts us and others.) Children should understand that sin is anything we do that goes against what God wants us to do. We can know what God wants us to do by reading His word and praying.

When our children disobey, we must make sure that they know exactly what they have done wrong. We must point it out, and then refer back to God. We must help children to understand that when they disobey Mommy or Daddy, they also are disobeying God. Reminiscent of David, when he was sorrowing over his sin said to God, “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned.”

Your converstation could go something like this, “Why did you talk ugly (or whatever the offense was)  to Mommy just now?  What does the Bible say about this? I also like to ask, ‘How do you think it makes God feel when you sin and do (whatever it was)?’”

At this point, you get out your Bible and look up the verses Honor thy father and thy mother, Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right; and a couple of verses on the tongue. Then allow the child some time to think about what he or she has done.  Allowing a child to sit for ten minutes or so alone without the benefit of TV, or other electronics, or stimuli can give the Holy Spirit a chance to speak to him or her.

This is not a quick or necessarily easy way to teach kids about sin. It requires parenting by real parents, not government regulated proxies. It requires a commitment to the heart of your child, and a willingness to see childhood sins as God sees them, and not overlook them. (Little sins become big ones later on!) Children develop and understanding of sin through repeated teaching of God’s word and godly discipline.

Would you like see a video of me reading Chapter One of my salvation curriculum, Answers For New Christians?

When I first started working with New Christian children, I was really surprised at how few of them understand sin. This is the reason that Answers For New Christians starts with the story of Adam and Eve. After all, how can you be saved if you don’t know that you are a sinner? What are you saved from?

Part of the problem is the fact that children are afraid if they say they did something wrong, they might get in trouble. So it’s hard to know. But I remember one little girl  who was about five years old.  She was in the the New Christian class. We went through the story of Adam and Eve. We went over Romans 3:23. and Romans 5:8.  (Bear in mind, that in order to be in this class, a child had to profess a desire to be saved either in a worship service, or to a parent or teacher. So most all of the children in our New Christian Class had already prayed to receive Christ.) When I got to the sin workbook page in Answers For New Christians, I asked her the question, “Are you a sinner?”

She did not hesitate.  “She looked me square in the eye and said, “NO!”

I was a little taken aback, and went over the material again. I asked her again, in a little different way this time, “Have you ever sinned?”

She repeated her answer. I went over the river and through the woods, explaining sin, how I had sinned, and everybody, even she had sinned.  Then it got ugly. She got angry and wrinkled up her little brow, and informed me that she had NEVER sinned.  At that point, I had to just gently tell her that the Bible said that she had sinned, and that I would pray for her. This child had not been saved, because she had never come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. No matter how great our Bible stories are, the Holy Spirit is the one who draws people to himself. As parents and teachers we must pray for our children to realize that they need to be forgiven of their sins.