Sharing your “born again” birth story

by Gloria Furman

“And Mommy was standing at the sink doing dishes when all of a sudden there was water all over the floor…”

And it wasn’t from the sink!

“That’s right. Then we knew Baby Aliza was on her way.”

My 5-yr-old loves to hear birth stories and coming home stories. Her current favorite is her brother’s story. The story before that it was Asher’s—my dear friend’s son who was adopted from Ethiopia. And next week who knows whose story will be requested over and over again.

Jesus and New Birth

In the cover of darkness late one night a man named Nicodemus asked Jesus a question about being “born again.”

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” John 3:4

The dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus about what it means to be “born again” is the context for this infamous statement from Jesus:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Remember Your Born Again Birth Story

In the Book of Joshua the Israelites were instructed to set up “stones of remembrance” so they would be reminded to tell their children of the faithfulness and mighty deeds of God. The pastor encouraged us to consider setting up our own proverbial stones of remembrance in the life of our family.

One way to do this, he said, was to prayerfully share our “born again birth story” with our children in terms that they can understand with godly wisdom and discretion in mind.

As I’ve thought and prayed about this, I wrote down some of the benefits of sharing your testimony with your children. I hope this list encourages you to prayerfully consider talking with your kids about how you came to know the Lord:

1. It’s a blessing to you! What a joy to your own soul it will be as you glory in the cross and “tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done” (Psalm 78:4).
2. It’s a reminder to you that God will finish the good work he has started in you. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).
3. It’s a testimony to them of God’s power over evil and death as he has given you new life in Christ. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). [Side Note: I know some ladies who feel insecure about sharing their testimony when truly all they've ever known is Christ. If you have little memory of your life before Christ, then you can testify to God's persevering grace as he has sustained your faith from an early age. Every testimony is evidence of God's power to save.]
4. It’s an evangelistic witness to them that we have all inherited a sin nature from birth (Romans 5:12-14) and we all need a Savior. It’s a witness to them that God loves sinners and that’s why he sent his Son Jesus. “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for man” (Romans 5:15).

I hope these thoughts encourage you to prayerfully consider sharing your “born again birth story” with your kids.