Teaching Kids About Regeneration from the Children’s Catechism Questions 38-40
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Today, we are covering the topic of Regeneration with three questions from the Children’s Catechism, a craft, a few songs, and more! You can do this all in one afternoon or spread it out over a few days as you review the questions at different times throughout the day.
This post is in a series of posts working through the Children's Catechism! For more information on how this started, be sure to read the beginning of this earlier post.
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The Questions and Answers from the Children’s Catechism
Q. 38. Can any one go to heaven with this sinful nature?
A. No; our hearts must be changed before we can be fit for heaven.
Q. 39. What is a change of heart called?
A. Regeneration.
Q. 40. Who can change a sinner's heart?
A. The Holy Spirit alone.
Bible Verses to Read and Discuss Together
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. - Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV)
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. - Titus 3:4-7 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Reading Selections
We read two short stories to go with this topic.
First, from Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God we read Chapter 9, which covers these questions and used a few of the Bible verses I had already talked about with my kids (and listed above). This book is so helpful because kids love hearing stories about other kids!
We also read chapter 41 in The Ology. A quick one page chapter titled “Born Again”, which quickly reviews the story of John 3 (with Nicodemus) and what it means for the Holy Spirit to change our heart.
Craft
We discussed a lot as we went through these books and Bible verses that we can’t change our own hearts. Only God changes hearts. As the story in Big Truths for Little Kids reminded us, we don’t love Jesus because we are smarter. It is only because God has shown us grace and mercy to put us in the place (our family) and time where we are and chosen us to be His.
From there, for today’s craft, I wanted to do something simple with hearts and also have displayed to help us remember what we are learning.
I decided to create a heart banner with my kids!
You will need:
The printable of heart templates from the Resource Library
8-10 feet of string, ribbon, or yarn (if you use all the hearts from the printable. You could make it shorter if you’re just doing this at home or longer if you are using it with a class and just print more copies)
A 1-hole punch like this one
Everyone decorated a few hearts, we hole punched each heart in the top on the right and left sides (two holes per heart) and then strung them in a partern (incorporting math for the three year old!) to hang in our school/play room over the window.
Four hearts also include words so that you have the text for questions and answers 39 and 40 (so make sure you put those in the correct order).
I am sharing this printable with you in the Resource Library! If you are an email subscriber, you already have the password (it’s at the bottom of each email I send) so you can just enter here to download it. If you haven’t gotten the password yet, just sign up here!
Songs and Podcast
These songs are great for playing if you need a break or transition from an activity (especially with littles while you set up the craft) or to play on repeat a few times while working or driving.
Ask Me Whooo has this content in the following songs: Question 40, Question 41-42. (I know, this is a little confusing because the numbers don’t match, I explained that here in a whole post if you’re interested.)
The Rizers singing 2 Corinthians 5:17 is available for free on youtube here or on Amazon (free with Music Unlimited) or to buy.
This may have been one of my favorite episodes of The Reformed Kidcast so far. The content of Episode 9 was obviously a great conversation with meaningful questions like these. However, putting on my “homeschool mom” hat, I giggled when I heard the kids say they like Cheetos and that they learned what seemed like a random fact from Wild Kratts and not a textbook. It’s the small things, am I right?)
I hope you found some of these resources helpful as you teach your kids these important truths!
For a list of all the best catechism resources, be sure to check out this page.
