How do you handle the Word of God with your children? Is it treated reverently and with respect or is it “dumbed down” and viewed as a fairy tale? Sadly, many children’s books today, such as Noah and the flood, distort biblical narratives by neglecting to include the entire story. God’s judgment against sin and rebellion, such as death and judgment, are oftentimes downplayed or left out entirely. Kevin Swanson encourages parents to not shy away from discussing with their children, even at young ages, that sin is a serious matter in God’s eyes and that He judges sin severely. At the same time, parents ought to balance the seriousness of sin with God’s mercy and love, demonstrated through the cross. We can only fully grasp the cross and God’s mercy if we also realize how serious our sin is, and how severe God’s judgment of that sin is. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Well, as early as three and four and five year old children should understand something of what happened at Noah's flood, for example. Too many of our children's books portray Noah as this pudgy little guy with the pudgy little animals waving goodbye as they sail into the sunset. Well, that wasn't exactly what happened at the worldwide flood. Most of the picture books forget to display the dead bodies of people swimming about the ark as the ark floated off while God brought this deluge upon the entire world. It was judgment.

It was God's judgment on the world. And I don't think we ought to prevent our children from that message. They need to understand that God is serious, sin is serious, and judgment is serious. Nevertheless, God is good and God saves His people from these disasters. Thankfully, we have the ark and we have the cross of Jesus Christ.

But without a sense of judgment, Without a sense of dread and fear, our children are not going to understand the Ark, and they're not going to understand the cross of Jesus Christ. You