Teaching Kids about the Trinity
Help Children Understand the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit
Children want to know and understand God. Their capacity for understanding is greater than adults think. Here is a hands-on method for teaching them about the Trinity.
The concept of the Trinity is hard for many people to understand; how can three people be one and one person be three? Yet, this is exactly how the Bible describes God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. There is one God with three divine persons but they are still only one God. Jesus by Himself is not God. God the Father cannot save us from our sins without Jesus. It seems complicated and hard to understand.
Adults are tempted to think that it is best to tell children that ‘we can’t understand it’ and expect them to accept that statement when at best it is a feeble explanation. Children want to understand God, so if they ask how Jesus can be God’s son and still be God, it is time to explain the Trinity to them. Here is a visual example of the trinity using a braid.
Using Braids to Teach the Trinity
If you have girls with long hair, this will be simple. If you don’t have girls or all your children have short hair, get three piece of yarn, string, or rope and knot them together at one end or tie them to the back of a chair to make your braid.
Let your children watch you make a simple braid from three sections of hair or from the three strands that you knotted together.
As you braid, ask them how many sections or strands it takes to make a braid. After they answer three, ask them how many braids you have when you are finished. After they answer one, you can show them how the braid is like the Trinity. The braid is made of three parts but there is only one braid.
After they understand how three separate pieces are united to make one braid, ask one of the children to pull out one of the strands from the top of the braid (for the sake of this example, it is good to make the braid rather loose so pulling a strand out is easily done). Once a strand has been pulled out, ask the children if it is still a braid. Explain to them that if you take out one part you no longer have a braid.
Alternately, show them what happens if you make a braid of only two strands of hair. Explain to them that a braid doesn’t look right or hold together if it doesn’t have all three parts.
Ask them how this is like God. Explain to them that if we ignore or deny one person in the Trinity it is like taking out a strand of the braid. When we deny a person of the Trinity, we no longer believe in God because one or two parts of the Trinity by themselves are not completely God.
Explaining Why We Should Believe the Trinity
If you want to really impress upon your children the importance of understanding the Trinity, make another braid from weak threads. Give the children a single thread and ask them to pull it until it breaks. Now take the braid made from the weak threads and have each child attempt to break it. It may break, but the child will realize that three strands braided together are much stronger than a single strand.
Explain to your children that if you understand and believe the Trinity, your faith will be stronger just like the braid with all three parts because you rely on God completely. If you believe only part of the Trinity, your faith is weaker because you don’t have all the parts of God in your heart, helping you to grow.
