Valuing Children: Treasuring, Protecting, and Learning Together

Jul 01, 2025

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“As you walk with Jesus, bring the kids. The disciples were walking with Jesus, but for some reason, they didn't want to bring the kids. And Jesus said, no, I want you to walk with me, but when you do, bring the kids.”
“We treat things based on the value we place on them, and that certainly applies to our treatment of children, doesn't it? Kids are precious for who they will become someday... but the truth is, kids are precious for who they are today. They're precious for who they are today, not just for their potential but for their personhood.”
“Do I value children with the same value and heart that Jesus did? Treasure them. Treasure the kids.”
“Jesus is basically saying, bad things are going to happen in life, but don't you be the one making them happen. Don't you be the cause of it. Yes, bad things happen, but don't you dare be the cause of it. Woe to those who are the cause of bad things happening in this world.”
“Is anything about my life or behavior potentially harmful to a child? I think our instinctive answer for most of us, I mean, we're pretty decent people. Most of us would say, no. We might not even think any more about it. But I think it would be good, honestly, for every one of us to sit with that question for a while, perhaps this next week, and really examine our lives, really examine our hearts, really examine the things that come out of our mouth and the attitudes that we say and or the attitudes that we show and the way that we live.”
“If you don't want something announced in the courtroom of heaven, in the presence of God, don't do it to a child. For the quickest way to get in trouble in the courtroom of heaven is to do something harmful direct at a child.”
“God has a special place in his heart for children. And we had better treat them right. Jesus just leaves no question about that truth.”
“Perhaps the answer is a clear no, that I'm not doing anything to harm a child, even potentially harm a child. But are there children in my life? Who, what children in my life need me to be their voice? Need me to be their protector? Need me to be their shield or defender? I believe God has placed children in all of our lives that are like that.”
“Our own practices of spiritual formation can become so personal and private that the kids never see them. Parents, if you have a time of devotion with the Lord, I hope you do. Do the kids ever catch you in the act? Do they ever see it? Do they even know about it? Or has it become such a personal practice, my own personal devotions, that the children don't even know that it's happening?”
“How can we better involve children in our spiritual routines in our walk with Christ? How can we bring the kids?”
“Are there five Christian adults that are influencing your child's life? And of course I mean people who are good examples of what it means to be a Christian, maybe I should clarify that. Are there godly adult examples that are speaking into your child's life, people who know your child's name, people who actually will look your child in the eye and give them a little bit of attention in the name of Jesus so to speak?”
“Do we create a climate in our homes and in our conversations and while we're in the car and so forth where it is normal, it's normal to talk about God, it's normal to talk about faith? Or is that something that we just kind of keep very, very quiet, very private, we don't talk about it even to our kids? No, we need to talk about it to our kids and it should be normal for us to talk about it to our kids.”
“Give each child their own physical Bible and read it with them to where it becomes a part of their life, it becomes part of their spiritual journey and they are owning that Bible as their own.”
“I have a deep conviction that when a child is in a church or in an environment that they associate with church and they have a good experience and they know they are loved, they never forget that.”
“If week after week after week they find that they are loved in this place, they are safe in this place and they repeatedly hear the name Jesus in this place, when they grow up as they grow up there will be something deeply embedded in them so that when they're in trouble and they're looking for refuge their heart is going to pull them back to God and back to the church.”
“The world will not teach our children the ways of God. You know that right? The world will not teach our children the ways of God. The world will teach our children an awful lot of skepticism that right? If the world has its way you, you pretty much every kid raised in a church is going to end up an agnostic. Because that's the philosophy of our world today, is agnosticism.”
“Don't abdicate the responsibility of your children's spiritual lives to someone else. Where when we stand before God, as parents, there's going to be a short list of things that we're held responsible for directly. And I believe our children are at the top of that list. Or they're very close to the top of that list.”
“All of us, we're responsible for any child that's under our care or influence, whether we're a parent or not. We are responsible for that child that we're influencing at the moment. May not be our kid. We may not even know the kid's name. But if they're in our presence or under our influence in some way, we are responsible in that moment to make sure that there is nothing harming them. And if we have an opportunity to instruct them in the ways of the Lord, we're called to do so.”
“Jesus said in Matthew 18, verse 3, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children. What? You will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Become like little children. Jesus is saying we have a lot to learn from kids. Learn from them.”
“In God's kingdom, the question may not be am I tall enough? The question may be am I small enough? Am I small enough? Or am I, as my mom used to say, too big for my britches? Is my ego so inflated that I cannot, I cannot approach God with the humility of a child? Am I small enough?”
“When you come to God, you just come like a child, with simple, dependent trust.”
“Are children big enough in my eyes? Are they big enough to matter? Are they big enough to treasure? Are they big enough to belong? Are they big enough to include? Are they big enough to bring along? Well, certainly in God's eyes they are.”
“Am I small enough in my own eyes to enter the kingdom of God and to live in the kingdom of God as a child without making demands, without thinking I've earned something, without thinking I deserve something, but complete, humble, simple trust? That's what God calls us to. To lift the children up, put ourselves down in an appropriate way. That's life in the kingdom.”
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