“At about six months of age, children start developing internal pictures of external realities.”

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 202). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Mark continues, “Psychologists refer to this ability to create and catalog mental images as representational intelligence. Like a slow-developing Polaroid, those internal images are developed in the darkroom of your mind’s eye. The first internal image is mom, which develops at about six months of age. Dad doesn’t enter the picture until about eight months. Give children a few years, and their entire vocabulary will have a matching picture. But if your eyesight doesn’t develop normally, neither will your mind’s eye.”

And that is true in so many areas in our development even spiritual. 

I was fortunate that I was raised in a home that took me to church at a very early age.  Of course my dad was a minister so that was my life and going to church was never an option so we always went unless we were sick.  That was also true of my kids and that is true of them with their families.  That is why our internal pictures of who God is and what He can do have become external realities in our lives.  We saw Christ lived out not only through our parent’s relationship with Him but also through the people we saw at church.

I can think of so many people in my life who have had such an important influence on my life and then people who had such an influence on my children’s lives and then now on my grandchildren’s lives.  For the most part those relationships were developed at church. 

Our spiritual development is not just what we know but what we see in the lives of people.  Church is more than just a place to learn about God but a place where we see God lived out through people.  We can learn about Christ through Podcasts and streaming church services but we see Christ lived out in people.  The church is a body of people who love God.  Let your kids see that and experience that.  It will make a difference in their spiritual development.

So where did you take your family to church this past Sunday?