Teaching Our Children to Fear the Lord
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Proverbs 9:10 (see also Proverbs 1:7 and Psalm 111:10) tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we want our children to grow in wisdom, we must begin by teaching them to fear the Lord. But how do we do that? There are many practical ways, and one of the most foundational is teaching them who God is by studying His character and attributes, beginning with His holiness. What does it mean that God is holy? Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines holy, as applied to God, as “perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character, free from sin.” To be holy is also to be perfectly just and good. And what does it mean that God is perfectly just?
It means He cannot tolerate sin, which is why Scripture declares that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We can ask our children, ”What does it mean to sin?” To sin is to disobey God. Adam sinned when he ate fruit from the tree that God told him not to. God has given us moral laws to follow (think the 10 commandments). In fact, not only has He written these down for us in the Bible but He has also written them on our hearts. We all know that it is wrong to lie, steal, murder (or hate), etc. Yet we all do it. Who hasn’t told a lie or dishonored their parents, breaking God’s commands? Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means every one of us deserves hell.
Praise God, He did not leave us in our helpless state. He sent Jesus to die in our place, paying our debt on the cross. Eternal life is a free gift, given by God’s grace through faith in Jesus alone. But this does not give us a free pass to do whatever we want or to keep on sinning simply because Jesus has already paid our debt. We must teach our children that a true believer obeys God and shows that their faith is genuine through their fruit and good deeds. Those who bear rotten fruit are not truly saved.
“Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.” – 1 John 3:9-10
We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), understanding how easy it is to fall away if we do not daily take up our cross and follow Jesus, daily get into His Word, and daily pray for His help to stand strong against the attacks of the enemy. When our children rightly understand who God is in His holiness, and who we are in comparison (wretched sinners in need of a Savior), they will learn more fully what it means to fear the Lord.
We can use examples from Scripture to help our children understand why it's imperative to learn to fear the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 26:5, we read that King “Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the LORD, God gave him success.” Sadly, after Zechariah was gone, Uzziah lost his fear of the Lord, and that eventually led to his downfall. We can use his story to teach our children not only the importance of fearing the Lord, but also the importance of owning their faith in Jesus rather than leaning on someone else’s. Uzziah should have built his own personal relationship with the Lord, so that he would not fall away once Zechariah was no longer there to guide him.
Another way to teach our children to revere the Lord is to help them learn to marvel at his creation. When our youngest son was about a year and a half to two years old, we went on vacation to Florida with my parents. He was in that stage when seemingly random things would make him crabby (usually when he was tired or hungry). My dad, being the great grandpa that he is, was always trying to distract him from whatever was upsetting him. His go-to line was, “Hey, let’s go see if we can find any birds outside!” Then he would take him outside and get all excited the moment he spotted one: “Oh wow! Look at the bird! Isn’t that an amazing bird? Wow, look at all those colors! Didn’t God create such a beautiful bird?” He got our son so excited about birds that on the entire drive home from Florida to Michigan, any time our son saw a bird he would yell, “Ohh, bird!” or “Mom, look, bird!” Thanks, Dad! Haha!
Our son is six now, and he still loves birds. He gets especially excited when he spots a really cool one, like the bald eagles that occasionally fly over our house. That got me thinking: how often do we stop to marvel at the beauty of God’s creation and the genius of His design?
We can teach our children to marvel at the beauty and genius of God’s creation, and at His amazing power, by learning about His omnipotence and sovereignty through a study of His creation and works. The force of tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes gives us just a small glimpse of His unlimited power, for example.
One book we love for teaching the wonder and awe of God’s handiwork in creation, and His display of power, is God Made the World by Kevin Swanson. It has more of a textbook format, but it is full of Scripture and beautiful pictures that reinforce these truths. Another book we enjoy for exploring the intricacies and genius of God’s design is Made in Heaven by Ray Comfort and Jeffrey Seto, which highlights inventions that were modeled after God’s creation.
We can teach our children the difference between fearing man and fearing God.
Matthew 10:28 says, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
We should teach our children that physical death is inevitable, but there is also something called the second death (Revelation 20:14–15, 21:8), when unrepentant sinners are thrown into hell. We can escape this second death only by repenting and putting our trust in Jesus alone for salvation. We must also teach our children the realities of hell, and one way to do that is through a study of what the Bible teaches about it. Hell is a terrible place of eternal, conscious torment, where “the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched” (Mark 9:48). Read aloud the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31.
We can teach our children about the dangers of forgetting God from Romans 1:28 and Psalm 78. Read Psalm 78 aloud with your children, then talk together about the consequences the Israelites suffered when they forgot God.
“Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.” – Romans 1:28
Fearing God helps us love, respect, and obey Him. I love the analogy Ray Comfort often uses: if you were in a plane 10,000 feet up and had to jump, why would you put on a parachute? Because you don’t want to die! And what drives you to put it on? Fear. In that case, fear is your friend, not your enemy, because it drives you to put on the parachute that will save your life. The same is true of the fear of the Lord. When we understand the reality of hell, and that each of us will one day stand before a holy God and give an account for our actions on Judgment Day, that fear will drive us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us from God’s wrath. Once we have repented and placed our faith in Jesus alone for salvation, we have tremendous peace! Yet we still carry a holy fear and reverence for the Lord that keeps us from denying Him, just as the man wearing his parachute has peace but still has a healthy fear of the jump, which makes him cling all the tighter to his parachute.
The best way to learn to fear the Lord is to immerse ourselves in His Word daily and to talk with Him throughout the day. We need to constantly remind ourselves that God sees everything, even our thoughts. We also need to teach our children the importance of refusing to compromise on God’s Word, as so many people want to do today. The devil loves it when we diminish God’s power in creation, such as when we try to force millions of years into the creation account, as though God could not simply speak the world into existence in an instant, just as His Word says He did (Genesis 1:3, Psalm 33:9, Hebrews 11:3, 2 Peter 3:5).
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” – Genesis 1:1
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” – Exodus 20:11
Teaching our children to fear the Lord is not a one-time lesson but a daily, lifelong pursuit. It begins with helping them see who God truly is: holy, just, all-powerful, and the Creator of every bird that soars over our homes. It continues as we show them who they are in comparison, sinners in desperate need of a Savior, and point them to Jesus, the only One who can rescue them from the wrath to come. And it grows as we teach them to fear God rather than man, to remember Him rather than forget Him, and to stand firmly on His Word without compromise.
Like the man clinging to his parachute, a heart that rightly fears the Lord will hold fast to Christ, not in dread but in peace, reverence, and joyful obedience. May we, as parents, model that holy fear in our own lives, so that our children will grow to marvel at their Creator, love Him with all their hearts, and walk in the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord.
"Praise the Lord! Blessed is a person who fears the Lord, Who greatly delights in His commandments. 2 His descendants will be mighty on the earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed." - Psalm 112:1-2 (NASB)
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Read more about how to help your children learn to fear the Lord in my book, "Training Godly Warriors".
Onward Christian Soldiers!
For more resources on training Godly warriors, explore our articles on faith-filled parenting, family discipleship, and spiritual warfare at TrainingGodlyWarriors.com.
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