I get this question from Elementary age kids in Sunday School. Their lives are full - playing with friends, going to school, living with their family, playing video games, why should they spend time and effort on God?
The first answer doesn’t satisfy: God created the universe (and us) and sent Jesus to rescue us from our sin. That’s just not the way they look at the world.
Second try does no better: nothing will ultimately satisfy us in life if it is not from Him and in Him; worldly pleasures, accomplishments, possessions, relationships all amount to nothing and will crumble to dust in the end; only God endures. At age 10, the final outcome isn’t in their conceptual framework.
Third try: there is true joy and happiness found in Him, that is not found in anything else. The challenge here? It is so natural for children to find satisfaction in serving others (except for doing chores) that they don’t connect it to God. They like to please people!
Number four: the consequences of rebelling against God, doing wrong instead of right, are God’s way of getting our attention. That is an abstraction, possible to see but hidden most of the time.
Five: there is a supernatural joy that comes when we connect God to a situation, in prayer and action that invokes His presence. This comes a little closer - because kids simultaneously see a miracle and experience the glow of a God’s presence.
But the bottom line puzzles me. It almost seems that God has pre-wired some kids (people) to simply love Him without needing persuasion, and others to be oblivious to any and all forms of enticements. But how much are these kids different from adults? We offer the same set of excuses.
