Learning our faith

We live a long way from our home church - three hours away. During the weeks we are not able to get to our RPCA church we attend a local independent church, which is part of the Baptist Union of Australia.

This means that Jemimah has a pretty good idea that all Christians do not worship in the same way.

Now, when Jemimah was baptised, we as her parents made the following promises before God:

Do you acknowledge your child as a covenant child and, according to the gracious design of Christian baptism, do you dedicate your child to God and present her for recognition as a member of the visible church?

Do you promise to perform the following parental duties:

To pray that your child may be renewed and brought into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as signified in this sacrament;

To seek that your child may come to know the Holy Scriptures and to know the duty of committing herself to God;

To rule well your household, exercising parental authority with firmness and love, setting the example of a holy and consistent life, and attending with regularity to personal, family and public worship;

To seek that your child may while young come to understand the history, doctrine and practice of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and may be helped to experience the blessings of loving obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can see that we promised not only that Jemimah might know the Holy Scriptures, but also that she might be raised as a Reformed Presbyterian, understanding Church history, doctrine and practice. How we live is based upon what we believe.

That is why we were delighted to discover Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God by Susan and Richie Hunt.

Susan Hunt along with her son, Richie, aim to help parents systematically teach their kids the basic truths of faith so that they live for the Lord.

Their purpose is:

• To teach children that they are created for God's glory.
  
• To show some practical implications of this life purpose.
  
• To repeatedly emphasise to children their need for God's grace to glorify Him.

They do this by working through the questions and answers of the First Catechism. This excellent updated version of the children's catechism was originally created in 1840 by Joseph P. Engles as a way to introduce younger children to the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Each lesson begins with the simple questions and answers and is followed by a story of two siblings, Caleb and Cassie, which illustrates how that truth can be applied.

The important thing is, these kids are like Jemimah. They have Family Worship - like we do. They believe there are two sacraments, - like we do. They celebrate the Lord's Supper the same way we do. They believe in infant baptism, explaining that baptism is a sign and seal of God's covenant to be our God and the God of our children - like we do. They keep the Sabbath holy - like we do. The book teaches a Christian Worldview that is really close to the Reformed Presbyterian Worldview that we promised to impart to our daughter while still young. This book helps us to achieve that goal.

We memorise the Westminster Shorter Catechism in our home, so I didn't expect Jemimah to learn the answers to these questions as well, but children have prodigious memories, and it is amazing the number of answers she has retained just from one or two readings. Most importantly she has learned the application of the doctrine - she is learning how to apply it to her own life.

We loved this book.