The Chinese are firm believers of the saying “Let the children win at the starting line” when it comes to their child’s education. Once a child is born, Chinese families cannot wait to teach their children to learn and read and some would even send them to training courses to hone their knowledge.
However, educating children should not only focus on academic improvement and providing them with their needs such as food and clothes. Chinese Christian parents must understand that their children must also learn how to believe in God.
In light of the celebrations for Mother’s Day, several Christian mothers had talked about how they get along with their children and how they teach them important values such as learning from mistakes and believing in God.
Teacher Zhou: Parents should guide their children by practicing good behaviors.
According to early childhood education teacher and Christian Zhou said that she deliberately did not teach her children too much. She remarks that Children are born to imitate. They are more likely to learn from how their parents live their lives than learn while being taught. If their parents do an act in a certain way, their children would most likely follow that example. This can be seen in how they take part in religious activities such as listening to sermons, praying and worshipping God.
When her children make mistakes, Zhou would narrate lines from the Bible and she does not directly give sermons without it, because it will be hard for the children to understand what it meant and would argue against it. However, Zhou stressed that if she says “The Bible said so and God said so”, the child would easily stop their activities and listen. In one example, according to the stories in the Bible, one person did a particular deed and was punished accordingly. The people then took the event by heart. Zhou also said “Children have very pure hearts and when we speak according to the Bible, they know that it is right.”
Housewife Hao: A good family atmosphere is more important than anything else.
Housewife and Church servant in Inner Mongolia Hao shares that her child grew up from Sunday school as she and her husband both served the church. Their child learnt how to read and learn from the Bible thanks to Sunday school. However, since she was not able to spend time with her child due to her work at the Church, she was not able to teach her child a lot. She is grateful that God educated her child Himself thanks to Sunday school and enabled her child to have a loving heart towards the Bible.
Hao explains that her child often studies the Bible on his own and if he makes a mistake, they would just cite how the Bible tells about that occurrence and educate him. The child knows what was wrong and blaming him would not work. “We are a Christian family because we serve God. We often have Christian brothers and sisters visiting us and in this atmosphere, he grows up in a stable pace.”
Sister Cui: Use different ways to educate different children.
For Sister Cui who has a two-year-old child, educating the child can be difficult especially as her child is still too young to understand. She would pray together with her child in order to get the child familiar to the activity before going to bed. Although the child doesn’t understand what praying means, she imitates what Sister Cui does. They also read the Bible together and Cui would also tell stories from the Bible in a way her child can understand.
Sister Tan: We should give children to God for discipline.
50-year-old Sister Tan has three children with two of them studying theology in the US while the youngest is well-versed with God’s words very well. Although her youngest is in elementary school, her daughter knows what is right from what is wrong. Sister Tan shares that when she was younger and had her child, she did not know the right way of educating children. She did not know how to teach them the theories as well. However, she thought that giving her children what they needed was right; but that didn’t last very long as she realized that there is something missing in her children. She listened to a pastor’s preaching while in Church and realized what was wrong. She brought her children to the Church with her and learn God’s word. She taught her children on how to be good people by admitting to their mistakes, the rules on what they should follow and how to tell the truth. She also shares that she uses God’s word in teaching and guiding her children.
Sister li: Guide children on how they can master prayer, and live a life which is guided by God.
For Christian sister and mother of two Sister Li, educating children is done in a different approach.
“My two children are different so dealing with education is also different. Generally speaking, I can achieve little on my own because whenever I see them and their faults, I want to change them. However, reprimanding or lecturing would not change their bad habits, so I can only tolerate and pray that they change.”
Translated by: Song Jun
