This week’s passage tackles one of the most troubling aspects of Christian experience: doubt. If you’ve done DTP, you’ll know this is one of the first issues we tackle in Session 1. You know it’s an issue when someone of the spiritual stature of John is assailed with it (see Jesus’ estimation of John in Lk.7:28). Doubt clearly isn’t a sign of spiritual immaturity!

As you negotiate this with your family there are two main areas I’d suggest you focus on:

the first is the experience of doubt itself. This is tricky with younger children. It may never have occurred to them to be unsure about what you have taught them about Jesus. It might be easier to tackle this from the side of assurance. Playing into the God-given ‘visual aid’ is so helpful here. As a parent, you are a model of God, and your relationship with your child(ren) reflects the dynamics of God’s relationship with us.

This makes it easier to conceptualise! Do you know that [fill in the blank here] loves you? How do you know? Are you ever scared that [fill in blank] doesn’t love you? What would you do if you were scared like that?

It’s easy then to shift this to our relationship with God... Do you know that God loves you? How do you know? Are you ever scared that God doesn’t love you? What would you do if you were scared like that?

John was scared. Not quite about whether God loved Him, but about whether Jesus was God! It’s important to help our children understand that questions are OK... more than OK – they are good things. Jesus doesn’t tell John off for asking such a deep question.

but neither does He answer the question directly! He sends John on a bit of a treasure hunt!

you can have a lot of fun with this as a family. set up a treasure hunt with verses from the Bible and other prizes to be found. There are some great ideas for tresure hunts here

The treasure hunt Jesus sends John on gets him exploring the Bible.

read Luke 7:21-22. What is Jesus doing here? He is sending John back to the writings of the prophet Isaiah, where everything He is doing is prophesied (e.g. Is.35:5-6; 61:1). This is how Jesus teaches us to resolve doubt.

This is a great skill to begin to teach our children as early as we can... how to search the Scriptures to engage our doubts. Asking questions that pre-empt the kind of things we find ourselves doubting, and then showing our child(ren) where to find passages that speak to those questions is a fantastic thing to practise as a family

Father in heaven,

There are times when I have so many questions.

Help me to trust your Holy Spirit as He teaches me through the Bible.

Teach me in my heart as well as in my head about what it means to follow Jesus.

In His Name.

Amen.

And that passage we were working from in our service (this - or part of it could be a great memory verse):

Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees.

With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.

I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

Ps.119:12-16