Teaching Kids the Theological and Relevant Truths of Original Sin with the Children's Catechism Questions 34-37
Today we are finishing up our content on "original sin" by exploring the theological and relevant truths found in the Children's Catechism questions 34-37.
Right around here, many parents simply lose steam and stop working on the catechism questions with their kids because the questions and answers get well, a little depressing and can be hard for little kids. But press on! Even when it’s hard, we have to deal with the hard stuff (today, that’s original sin) so we can get to the Gospel!
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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We already talked about original sin a little bit here (and made a simple craft). We also talked about the Covenant of Works here (which includes a coloring sheet). If you’re just jumping into this post, make sure you check those out too!
Today we are covering four questions:
Q. 34. Did Adam act for himself alone in the covenant of works?
A. No; he represented all his posterity.
Q. 35. What effect had the sin of Adam on all mankind?
A. All mankind are born in a state of sin and misery.
Q. 36. What is that sinful nature which we inherit from Adam called?
A. Original sin
Q. 37. What does every sin deserve?
A. The wrath and curse of God.
Since there were quite a few words here that have complex meanings, I created an Original Sin Word Search for my kids and I am sharing it 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!
As we worked on the Word Search, we talked about some of the words and also listened to the following songs:
Ask Me Whooo Volume 1 Tracks Q & A 29-32, Q & A 36, Q & A 37, and Q & A 38-39
The Scariest Song, which I wrote about here.
My two-year-old is now using the word “misery” (which we talked about as being very sad and having problems) all the time. Maybe if nothing else, a vocabulary win!?
To finish up and explain the concepts once more, we read two chapters from The Ology. Chapter 15 covers how sin separates us from God and from each other. Chapter 16 goes into detail about how sin always brings consequences and judgment.
This was a good jumping point to discuss how sin so often causes relationship problems in our house. Three sinful kids (ages 7, 5, and 2) and a sinful mama make for lots of "issues". We need to be better at not just glossing over our sin but instead repenting to one another because of how miserable our sin truly is and then looking to Jesus!
We reflected on James 4:1 together, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (ESV) When someone is being selfish, it results in fighting and consequences.
We talked about how we will always be sinners. However, we should be striving to be more like Jesus in our actions because we are so thankful that he died for our sins. As a result, we want to be people who love peace.
This is a good reminder for us as moms to be constantly pointing our kids to Christ’s completed work for them and not expecting perfection in their actions throughout the day. We have the important job of helping them learn both the how and also the why of obedience. This won’t be done in one simple catechism lesson, this is the ongoing work of parenting!
I hope you enjoy this simple lesson and Word Search! Let me know what you’re discussing with your kiddos in the comments!