A few years agok my wife and I were saddened to learn that the VBS director of my church did not encourage asking children to put their faith in Jesus by asking Him into their heart. She did not believe children understood the concept of a Spiritual Heart. She thought most thought of the heart as an organ that pumps blood. The result was, no one was Saved during that VBS. SAD.
On hearing this, my wife and I both wanted to find a way to explain the Spiritual Heart. I looked for a visual way to help a verbal explanation. From my past studies, I decided on using some etymology discipline and my studies of the ancient Hebrew Pictographic letters. I found that the the ancient Hebrew Pictographic letters in this case were very helpful.
The attached document are lessons that may be helpful in explaining the Spiritual Heart, both verbally and visually.
In posting these Lessons, I would apprecaite feed back.
One other consideration--Sunday School attendance is down, and possibly VBS too. Someone could veryfy if that is correct--but I believe it may well be true. We have many of our youth leaving church and Christianity. My heart in sharing this study is to provide a way that can help people and children learn about the Spiritual Heart. Hopefully when they do, they will desire to put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Please, if you take the time to read this, study the lesson provided and let me know some constructive thoughts about how we can encourage leaders to teach about what the Spiritual Heart is.
Thank you very much.
Here is are the Lessons that may help assist a Child's Understanding of the Heart:
A1 Lessons on Prayer for Children---Assisting a Child's Understanding of the 'Heart'-AA.pdf
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Lewis, this is very good and useful. May God bless these lessons!
The Holy Spirit works in kids' hearts even when they are still very young. I have seen that over and over with kids as young as 5 or 6 years old.
Teaching them also that Jesus is their Friend and how to pray is the best thing we can ever do. It changes their lives when they see how God answers their prayers. It is sooo worth it.
Using the Hebrew letters is a wonderful way to introduce them to the Bible and the treasures thay can find there.
Do you have a book in print that I can buy to pass this on? That would be very helpful.