Who is Jesus?

As a Sunday School teacher to 3 yr. olds, I have a confession to make. I have done a terrible job teaching my own children. This morning as I dressed Nathan, he said to me as he pointed towards the dining room, "That's Jesus' house." I said, "Oh, did you make that for Jesus?" "Yes," he said, "and it's pink because Jesus likes pink." Then Alex piped in some more details about this house they made for Jesus. So I asked them, "Who is Jesus?". Alex thought for a minute and replied, "He is a baby." "Well, yes, at one time he was a baby and we always talk about baby Jesus at Christmas time. But Jesus grew up to be a man who did amazing things. Jesus is the son of God." And I went on to talk to them about the miracles Jesus performed and briefly touched on how he died on the cross for us. They looked at me blankly through the first part and then I could tell their thoughts had moved on to other things and they were no longer listening.

I guess I really don't bring Jesus into our daily conversations as often as I should. We say the blessing before every meal, but we just say the same "God is great; God is good..." blessing each time, and I'm not sure they really understand why we say it. They just know we're supposed to before we start eating. I want them to know why we're saying it. Perhaps if we start taking turns just saying our own blessing, as opposed to a memorized one together.

If I homeschool Alex next year, I know I want to make religion part of our daily study. But why haven't I already implemented that even now? I know he's not getting any religion at preschool each day because it's public school. And Nathan is certainly old enough to start learning more. Sadly, they don't attend church as regularly as they should. I'm there almost every Sunday, but when one child is sick, for example, we just let them all stay home with Daddy. I know this is not how it should be.

Something I have admired in my Catholic friends is how knowledgable their children are about Jesus. In particular, this time of year as I hear about families going through the Stations of the Cross together, I realize how little my children are learning. I have always thought that preschoolers were too young to introduce the details of the crucifixion to. In church, we keep it simple and don't really give any explanation or details regarding Jesus's death and resurrection. We simply state he died and rose again on the third day. I think the children still learn an important fact, but without the details, are they really learning the biggest truth of all - that He died to save us? I'm not trying to put blame on Baptist teachings. I alone take the blame for not properly teaching my children. I know that my friends' young children are not traumatized from learning about the subject of death, so why am I so reluctant to teach it?

I pray that God will give me wisdom and strength to teach my children as much as they are capable of knowing, especially when it comes to Jesus and His sacrifice for us. I also pray that He will help me to be diligent about keeping Him in our daily conversations and allow me to take advantage of every moment to present a Bible teaching to my children.