I am always convicted about what the Lord teaches me as I work with the boys on a new W.O.W. Word. This month’s word, truthfulness, seemed so straight forward. I later realized, however, that I was only thinking about one side of the word. One part of truthfulness is telling the truth. The other component is believing the truth and spotting the lie.
There are two ways we can promote truth in ourselves that in turn overflows into the children we love.
- Dwelling in the truth so that God’s true words are on repeat in our minds. There was once a time, I believed the lie that I was alone. I lived in a house full of people but thought that no one truly knew me or cared about my feelings. But the truth is that God will never leave us or forsake us! (Hebrews 13:5) I am always known and never alone and that truth changes everything!
- Sifting through the inputs we receive to determine the truths we should keep and the lies we will not. As adults, we are usually able to reflect or discuss with another adult to determine the truth about something we have heard or seen. In the book, Mama Bear Apologetics, chapter 3 focuses on teaching our children this skill. After watching a movie, show or even listening to a song with your child, use the acronym ROAR to break things down with them using the following steps:
R- Recognize the Message
O- Offer discernment (affirm the good, reject the bad)
A- Argue for a healthier approach
R- Reinforce through discussion, discipleship, and prayer
Mama Bear Apologetics-Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies, page 54
Three out of four of my children are probably not ready for this step yet. So, how do we lay a foundation of truthfulness with our preschoolers?
Bring out the shaving cream!
I started this activity by asking: What is the difference between a lie and a fib?
We talked about what sounds the boys heard FIRST in the word lie as they used their finger to write the letter L in the shaving cream. Then, I gave them additional tasks such as:
Write the sound you hear first in fib. What’s the last sound you hear? (I had my oldest write full words while the younger boys practiced these letters.)
These words have different sounds and some people may think telling a fib is not quite as bad as telling a lie, because it’s usually about something small – but that is the only difference! They are both NOT THE TRUTH. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little fib or a big lie, it’s still not the truth.
It’s easy to know if we are telling the truth, but sometimes it’s hard to know if we are hearing the truth. We need to recognize what is true.
As the boys continued to play in their shaving cream, I made statements about the story of Esther with other random topics sprinkled in. They gave me a thumbs up if it was true and thumbs down if it was false. This prompted some big discussions about half truths!
Banks’ music teacher, Kirsten Shive, is amazing and has a video that teaches kids hand motions to the song “Every Word of God Proves True” which is an engaging and beautiful way to teach our kids the truth of Proverbs 30:3-5. Check out the video here or ask Alexa to play it for you! We have had this song on repeat all month long.
Pictures help preschool students to write God’s truth on their hearts.
Be sure and record your child on Day 1 of learning the memory verse and again when they have it memorized! Their progress in this area is my very favorite to observe!
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Mr. Marc was our next door neighbor and often played songs on his guitar as the boys ran around in the backyard. As part of the Speer Family, he grew up singing gospel music and continues using his gifts to record hymns for CB&J today! These hymns are a timeless way to remind children about the character of Jesus, and we are grateful to be able to share these with you.