God has given you to your child as a leader, mentor, teacher, and disciple-maker. These kinds of everyday spiritual conversations should be a part of your life rhythm with your child. Children are insatiably curious learners. Childhood is an imaginative and creative time. It is also a stage of life when motivation comes through reward & punishment. For these reasons, words & reality do not always align for children. This causes difficulty in our discernment of the heart of our children.
But the response that you are looking for in your child’s heart is not a response to your wisdom, but to God’s Word. Keep the Bible open and in front of you. The fruit that you and your child will reap from these types of Word-centered conversations will be eternal.Allowing a child to respond to God in His time is more important than your own (possibly idolatrous) need for assurance that your child is on the right track. You must be careful that your eagerness does not overcome a child’s readiness. Seek to carefully and sensitively take a posture of responsiveness to the movement of the Spirit rather than one of forceful initiation, as you patiently allow the Spirit to work faith in your child rather than inadvertently lead your child to a place where God is not leading. Discernment and relationship are key.